


Recovering Friendships

by KeJae



Category: Chuck (TV), White Collar
Genre: Gen, Intersected Neal
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-08-14
Updated: 2017-01-15
Packaged: 2018-08-08 18:59:46
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 25
Words: 59,900
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7769365
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/KeJae/pseuds/KeJae
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>What if Neal Caffrey had more to his past than even he knew about? This is the story of those gaps being filled and his dearest friendships being recovered. (Peter and Chuck come together to tell the tale of my version of an Intersected Neal/Bryce).</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Setting the Stage

** **

*******

Chuck was bored and sitting reclined in his office chair behind the Nerd Herd desk.  As he gently swayed back and forth, he was watching the rest of the employees go about their business. 

Morgan was actually working with a customer, Lester was standing behind him assisting Hannah, and the rest of the employees were working or lounging as usual. 

As a former employee and computer tech herself, Hannah knew how to fix her computer, but it was getting the program needed that was an issue.  In an effort to ramp up sales, Buymore Corporate had gotten a deal to make them the only distributer for the product.  As a result, Hannah was forced to return to the Buymore.  Refusing to work with Chuck, she accepted Lester for the simple sale.

Wishing there was something to occupy his thoughts, but finding nothing of interest, Chuck let his mind wander where it willed.

*******

With a sigh, Peter discovered that his phone wasn’t working and, being on a traveling case in Burbank, he decided to get it fixed as soon as possible since he would be needing it.  The errand wasn’t going to be pleasant though.  He had been ordered to bring Neal along with him so the enforced radius and trust issues made everything awkward between them.

Neal was either trying to get back onto Peter’s good side, or he was quietly waiting and watching to see how things played out. 

Meanwhile, Peter was trying to figure out how he felt as he had been having misgivings about his partnership with Neal.  After all, he had evidence proving that Neal was lying about the treasure and his actions had, in part, caused Elizabeth to be abducted by Keller who put her in life threatening danger.  Giving Neal his due, he did take the risks to save Elizabeth, and despite having the treasure, he was still around.

What made their situation even more awkward was the fact that Neal had to remain within less than a dozen yards of his location at all times… which was very uncomfortable for both of them considering the circumstances.

Looking to get the situation over with as soon as possible, Peter decided to ask one of the local FBI agents where he should go to get his phone fixed.  “Oh, that’s easy.  Go to the Buymore over on Burbank Boulevard and take it to the Nerd Herd desk.  However, ask for Chuck and only work with him if you want the job done right.  He is the best fix it guy in the city, but the challenge is getting him.  The guy is often not available… no one ever seems to know anything except that ‘He is on an install.’  Whatever that means.”  That was the resounding consensus of the entire office, ‘Take it to Chuck at the Buymore.’

It looked like this ‘Chuck’ was going to be the best solution so Peter decided he would begin the battle of hauling Neal to the Buymore.  He didn’t tell Neal where they were going, simply ordered him to follow him to the car.  This wasn’t entirely normal, but of late, it was a common occurrence.

As they drove through the city streets, Peter worked on coming up with his argument.  _I need to get my phone fixed and you have to remain within your radius to my location.  So, yes, you have to come along with me.  Cowboy up and stop complaining, this isn’t my definition of fun either._ The same argument seemed to summarize what Peter was thinking, so it seemed to be the winner. 

When they arrived at the Buymore, Peter got out of the car and turned to Neal.  He was opening his mouth and about to give Neal his spiel about why they were there, but to his utter surprise, Neal was simply climbing out of the car and looking around quietly.  Before he could ask Neal what he was doing by not complaining, Neal spoke.

“Peter, can you tell me why this city feels so familiar?  I have never done anything particular here, and I certainly haven’t been to a random Buymore.  Why do I feel like this place is special… like there is some huge piece of my life tied into that building?”  Neal sounded hesitant and looked something between confused and concerned.  It was like he was a small child asking his dad why he felt a sense of déjà vu, but feeling like an idiot for feeling like he had been somewhere that he knew he had never been.

Choking on his words, Peter couldn’t come up with anything to say to that.  Instead, he simply stared at Neal for a few moments and tried to comprehend where in the world that had come from!  Neal sincerely looked lost and forlorn in a way that Peter had never imagined his friend being.  For a moment, he wondered if Neal was trying to pull another con, then he thought that maybe Neal really met it, and then he thought that maybe Neal didn’t have a clue what was going on so he decided to ask him.  _The person he once claimed was the only person in his life that he could trust._   That stopped Peter in his mental tracks.  Neal trusted him enough to show when he didn’t have a clue and relied on him to help him find the way… and not just in solving a case, but with something that seemed to have an unknown emotional hold on Neal.  “I don’t know Neal.  I only know the things that you have told me, the few things about your past that I can prove, and my conjecture to fill in the holes.  There are huge portions of your past that I know nothing about.”

Neal flinched and turned away with a look that said he wished he had never asked.

That look made Peter’s heart slump in his chest and an ache fill it like lead.  “I didn’t mean it like that Neal.  Still, it is a fact.  You asked me why this place seems familiar, but I don’t know enough about your past to tell you the answer.  Perhaps something will connect while you’re here and you’ll find the answer from the place itself.”

With a silent nod of acquiescence, Neal quietly followed Peter into the building.

It didn’t take long after they entered the store before Peter and Neal were accosted by a short angry man with a beard.  While the man reamed Neal out about something to do with Stanford, Chuck, and betrayals of the lowest form… Peter could only think _what is this bearded gnome talking about?_   While he watched, Neal got a look that said he had no idea what was going on and wished someone would explain.

Before Peter could try to get a handle on the situation, two more people approached and joined in on the accusations.  This time there was something about ‘Why would you say he cheated,’ ‘How did you set him up,’ and more questions about these unknown incidents from ‘Stanford.’  The one that really got Peter’s attentions was when they all looked at Neal and asked “I thought you were dead, how did you fake that?”

Deciding it was time to interject, Peter broke in with, “Okay, that’s enough everybody.  Neal, can you explain what they are talking about?”

Neal simply shook his head with a wide eyed ‘deer caught in the headlights’ expression.

Gently but firmly, Peter directed the group to move with him.  “Where is this Chuck and let’s see if he can help set this situation straight?”

*******

 _…I would choose…_   Chuck was startled out of his inner monologue by the ruckus in front of him. 

As he looked up, he squeaked “Bryce!” and jolted back in his seat before he felt his mind disconnect with the familiar feeling of a flash.  _Seriously, Bryce Larkin has been hanging out as Neal Caffrey and a White Collar criminal?_   Regaining his control, he looked up again.  “What is going on?”

He was hit with a blast of noise as all of the people started to talk at once.  “He is dead, what is he doing here?”  “Tell him he isn’t welcome after what he did!”  “What is all of this about?”  “Will someone please explain what is going on?”  With Bryce sounding so forlorn and confused, it was enough to make a mix of Chuck’s inner Carmichael blend with his past experience as Bryce’s best friend (who used his couch experience to help others) to step up and take command.

“Quiet!!”  Chuck shouted above the noise. 

As the entire store suddenly got quiet and everybody looked to Chuck, he calmly waived the rest of the store to return to their work and directed that it was a private matter. 

Looking at Bryce a little closer, he couldn’t help but notice the open confusion.  _This isn’t him hiding his cover, he genuinely doesn’t know what is going on!_   “Bryce, you were dead, and now you’re not.  What did they do to you this time?  They seem to have made you forget everything!”  Sighing at the slack jawed expressions and turning around, he asked Lester to watch the desk as he had a situation to handle that would be best taken care of in the back.

Lester started to complain before Chuck shot him a look that gave him no other choice.  Hannah seemed to be rather shocked for a moment, but then she returned her focus to Lester in an effort to get back to her new job.

Turning back to the group in front of him, Chuck continued to be in a commanding mode.  “Agent Burke, if you and Neal would follow me, we can hopefully get this settled quickly.  The rest of you might as well come too.  She isn’t going to like this, but a certain amount of things are kind of blown anyway.” 

It was a seriously upset procession that followed Chuck into the back.  Once they were out behind the store, he indicated that the group should find places to sit along the loading docks.

“First of all, hello Peter.  My name is Chuck and I am an old friend of Neal’s… even though he doesn’t seem to remember that right now.”  Holding his hands up again to postpone the series of comments, Chuck continued.  “There are a lot of questions going around here and I can’t answer them all.  Some I know the answers to but I can’t share them, while others I don’t know the answers to share them.”  Walking over to Neal he began to focus on him.  “What is the first thing that you can remember going back into your life?” 

Surprised, Neal responded with the first thing that came to mind.  “Growing up in wit-sec with my mom and surrogate aunt.”

Again Chuck felt his mind disconnect with a flash.  _So Neal is his real name, but Caffrey is his mother’s maiden name.  Wit-sec?  …Oh, his father is a dirty cop… Neal had always wanted to be a cop?  I guess that explains why he suddenly changed his plans from building a company with me to being an agent.  He was returning to his roots, but putting his own stamp on the person he became instead of relying on being ‘his father’s son.’_   When the images cleared and his mind had thought through the implications of what he had just learned, Chuck looked at Neal with a new expression.  It wasn’t pity, no, more of understanding.  He now knew where he came from and his real history.  “Okay, do you remember how you came to be Neal Caffrey?”

Neal was as confused as the others by this point, but he still answered.  “I was eighteen when I found out that my father had betrayed me, my closest family had lied to me about everything, and the very reasons for my goals in life were based off of the history created for me by my family and the Marshals.  It was devastating, so I ran away.  Living on the streets I learned the skills of how to con and take care of myself.  Eventually I found the adrenaline exhilarating and became the world renowned con that was arrested by Agent Burke here.  As for the name, it is a mix of my real name and my mother’s maiden name.  It is as close as I am willing to go to my real name.”

Peter stared at Neal like he was seeing him for the first time.

Really, they all were learning something about Bryce/Neal that they never expected.  The information was received with a mixture of reactions.  Morgan and the Woodcombs didn’t believe it, Peter stored it away as something to discuss later, and Chuck shook his head knowing that it was wrong.  Neal was created as a cover after Bryce was recruited into the CIA, the story he was just told was the cover based in the truth of Bryce’s… Neal’s (?)... childhood.

Deciding to proceed with figuring out what he could, Chuck continued to question him.  “What does the name Bartowski mean to you?”

Shrugging, Neal answered.  “Nothing.  Should it?”

Sighing, Chuck asked them if they could wait for a few minutes as he needed to step inside and make a phone call for a moment to better direct what he thought might be going on.

Hurrying away, Chuck hoped that the General would have an answer for him.  Still, he feared that this was another situation where Bryce was revived by the enemy with no one knowing what was going on.  What else they may have done to him was what scared him more than anything.

After the General promised that she had no idea Bryce was alive, she demanded that Chuck confirm his identity and investigate into what had happened.

Taking a side trip down into Castle, Chuck retrieved some equipment to confirm Bryce’s identity.

*******

In the hope of getting answers, the group decided to let him go and waited with growing impatience to learn what was going on.

As they waited, the group was glaring at Neal, looking at the ground in confusion, or looking to the door with the hope that Chuck would hurry back.

Time passed way too slowly, but eventually Chuck returned with a bag full of supplies.


	2. Confirming Details

*******

Stopping in front of Neal, Chuck pulled out a machine to run his finger prints.  After Neal put his fingers on the machine, Chuck proceeded to check his eyes as well.

For a few moments there wasn’t a breath taken in.  Then the machines both came up showing that Neal was in fact Bryce.

“How is that possible, Bryce is dead?” was Ellie’s question.

Before everyone could start into the questions and demands again, Chuck held up his hands and began to explain. 

“First, Neal.  You actually left wit-sec and went to college.  We met the first day of college on the commons.  I was reading a C++ book while you were throwing a football with a classmate.  Once you noticed what I was reading, you started up a conversation about the class, we hit it off, and became friends that day.  When the fraternities started recruiting, we got into the same one and were roommates.  For the majority of four years our schedules were all night studies, nerd movie marathons, gaming, or programming while our days were filled with classes, school activities, and social events.  You were the legend of the campus.  You shined for academics and athletics, the ladies all thought you handsome, you could charm anybody, you were classic down to being a skilled artist, and you were a proud nerd with serious computer skills.  I must say you were the man, and I was lucky that I was the one you chose to be friends with.

What changed things, is that junior year you drew attention for all of your skills.  Those details aren’t things that I can share with the others present, but it changed both of our lives. 

Then senior year, you saw that same change coming for me… in a different way.   You were right in your assumption at the time, I saw the recording since then, but I would have been destroyed and killed if you didn’t intervene.  Things had already gotten so far along by the time you found that I was being targeted that there wasn’t much you could do to protect me.  After working your way up from things that would keep me from ever knowing, you ended up at the drastic action of getting me kicked out for cheating.  Although I didn’t cheat, you were forced to set me up or stand by and watch me leave everything that I have ever known, to enter into a game of life and death that would have ultimately lead to my death, and all whether I wanted to be involved or not. 

Then I left college and we didn’t speak again for years. 

To explain the other part that you are accused of, cheating with my girlfriend, you had nothing to do with that.  By getting me a reputation for cheating, you took me off of more radars than you knew about.  You see, my girlfriend at the time had been pushed into working with a group… a group of national enemies intent on causing mayhem.  Any way, they were looking to recruit me as well, but when I was deemed useless to their cause, they wanted me to be gone as soon as possible.  She was given an ultimatum to either get rid of me quickly, or someone else would get rid of me permanently.  Obviously she chose to get rid of me quickly, but the best way to do that was to claim that she had slept with you.  Since I wasn’t speaking to you, you couldn’t defend yourself, so it was the perfect alibi.  Between the two assumed betrayals, I hated you for years. 

Then things changed again.  After you had saved my life, my father contacted you.  He is the creator of something… something that the good guys and the bad guys have been warring over for decades and he didn’t have anyone he could trust to help him protect it.  You work for the same people that my father does and you took on everybody to protect me, so he trusted you.  The two of you spent four years working together and you learned things about my family that I never dreamed of.  Then, you were put in a position where the lives of many were in your hands via that something my father created.  In your final action, you sent that something to me. 

You did die that night, but you were revived in the ambulance on the way to the morgue.  For over a year you were held hostage in a state of near unconsciousness.  Then you were accidentally rescued, interrogated by your new boss, because the one who knew the truth had been killed, and while that was going on you used me for an escape since the enemy was nearby. 

When I next saw you, you were shot again, but were fortunately wearing a vest.  We cleared your name, and you left to do who knows what.  Apparently, there were times in there when you were off playing Caffrey and taking Burke here for a wild goose chase.  To me though, for a while you would be gone, drop in and make a mess of things, and then you would leave again. 

When Ellie and Awesome got married… things… well you helped to save my entire family’s lives.  Then you left to protect that other something that my father had created. 

By this point I had been heavily involved in things and learned a lot of this, we had talked, and we were getting to be on some semblance of understanding again... then my dad told us that you were in trouble. 

We hurried to get to you in time, I’m a Bartowski so even as a civilian I was allowed to tag along and help, but… we were too late.  I dropped in with you, but you had already been betrayed… you were bleeding everywhere… there was nothing that I could do to save you… we talked… and you… you died… again.

I stepped in and have taken your place of helping my father protect my family, his other creation, and any intended victim of our opponents.  Until today, no one was the wiser that you were even alive… They did something to you… you don’t remember… and I don’t know how to help you… but I will find a way!  We will find out who did this to you, what they did to you, and how to help you get the rest of your memory back.  I already talked to the boss, I have been officially assigned to figure this out and the others will be informed of our new task later.” 

Chuck tried to remain factual, but his emotions got in and he couldn’t help but let them out a little bit.  When he was done speaking, the others all looked at the situation with a new perspective.

*******

_I can’t believe it!  Yet, I have no reason not to.  Neal…_   Peter thought.

“So, my real name is Bryce?”  Neal questioned uncertainly.

Shaking his head, Chuck answered.  “No, Neal is your real name, and the pre-eighteen stuff is probably all real, what you have described is.  However, you went to college after discovering the truth.  Bryce is another wit-sec identity with more to him that you would think.  As for Caffrey, the con, he is an identity created by our former boss, the one who was killed.  I don’t know too much about it, but the boss is looking into things so more answers are coming.”

_This ‘boss’ keeps coming up.  Who does Neal work for?  Is there something more that I should be worried about?  Obviously there is as he has been killed twice, but is it legal or illegal?_ “You keep mentioning this boss, things you can’t say… What are you guys involved in?

With a knowing smirk, Chuck answered without really answering.  “Any employee has a boss, and ours is similar to yours, only she ranks a lot higher.  There are things you can’t tell me, and things that I can’t tell you.  You don’t have to worry though, if what we do is illegal, so is your job.”

The tall blonde guy seemed to be nervous.  It was almost like he knew what kind of stuff the others were involved in, but he didn’t want to join the conversation. 

Chuck noticed Peter looking at the other guy, so he mouthed.  ‘He knows, but he won’t tell you because he signed the confidentiality papers.  We’ll talk later, but my family needs to stay safely away from this.’

Looking around some more, Peter watched the reactions of the others.  The short ‘bearded gnome’ was looking aghast between Neal and Chuck.  It was like he suddenly had a whole new perspective on the relationship between the two and wasn’t certain if it was a good thing or not.  Then there was the woman.  She was staring at Chuck with a look that seemed almost like she was his mother and just discovered that he did something dangerous.

“You mean to say that you, dad, and Bryce all work for the government, Bryce was killed twice, and now you do what he used to do?”  She sounded like she was about to freak out.  The rest of the group turned to look at her while the two guys closest to her looked to Chuck to handle the explosion that was about to come.

“Ellie.  Umm… well you’re not supposed to know about all that, but… yeah… sort of… You see, after Bryce protected me, dad brought him into a level of work that is… a bit riskier than most… when he died… there were more lives than can be accounted for on the line.  He wasn’t just going to throw them to the wind and hope for the best the first time, and I had learned that I can do this by the time the second round came about.  Ellie, for the first in my life I can do something to help people… really help people.  Since doing this… well, I have been able to prevent bombs from going off, kept California on the map, stopped assassins and terrorist, met a real world 007, I helped save an agent’s little brother, and really that isn’t the half of the times that I have been able to sit in a van, work in the field, or simply do something like beat a video game to do something worthwhile.  In addition, I learned why Bryce did everything that he has done, why Jill did what she did, and why dad did what he did.  I have grown up and discovered that there is so much more to this world than I had ever dreamed I would encounter.  Even more importantly, I can still come home to you guys, I have worked with dad in the field and seen some of what he can do, and I have a great team of friends who have stuck with me and I know that I can not only trust them with my life, but with all of yours as well.  I know that you’re upset that no one has told you about this… but really?  I have a level six clearance and deal in matters of national security that I am not allowed to tell anyone about!  You have no idea how many times I have watched you be in danger and could only be grateful that I was able to work behind the scenes to keep you safe.  With the circumstances as they are… well I am going to get into huge trouble, but we’ll see if we can you guys at least some clearance…”

It looked like Ellie decided that maybe things weren’t quite as bad as she thought, but she still didn’t look happy about the circumstances of what was going on.

Looking like he was in command mode, Chuck began to give instructions.  “Agent Burke, you may want to call your boss as this is going to change your plans as well as probably change Neal’s contract with your agency.”  He pulled out a card and passed it over with his phone.  “Give him my number as I’ll be handling the investigation and determining what he needs to know and what it’s safer to keep from him.”  With a sigh, he continued.  “As for Mrs. Burke, she can’t know anything at the moment, but I do recommend letting her know that there is a change in plans.”

Turning to the others, he continued.  “Bryce, we’ll need to go to the base for testing to see what caused your confusion.  The boss will probably arrange for a team of specialists so we’ll have to wait for her to set things up.”  Turning to the others, he addressed their clearances.  “Awesome, you were already confused for me once so your papers are taken care of.  Ellie and Morgan, you will need to be prepared for a meeting before signing some papers… this stuff is highly classified.”

Neal felt the need to speak.  “I would like to thank you for your help, but I don’t want to put you through so much trouble.”

With a look that put Neal in his place, Chuck responded.  “Bryce, don’t you dare try to act like you’re not worth the effort!  You’re my friend, you need the help, and even if you hadn’t helped my family so much in the past, it is still what I do, so take the help and get over it!”

Everyone was a little surprised that Chuck was so direct and determined.

Before Peter could begin to try and back Neal’s comment, Chuck turned the look on him.  “Peter, you’re Bryce’s friend and a visiting agent… I could tell some really interesting stories about visiting agents, but I’ll keep those for another time.”  Getting back on track, he continued.  “Really, it’s not a problem and it’s only the beginning.  Since we don’t know what is going on, you will either be staying with us or with my team at the base.”

Looking back at his family, he confirmed that it would be okay to have two visiting agents over due to the special circumstances.  With their affirmation, he looked back at Peter and Neal as he waited for their choice.

Neal and Peter shared a looked before they responded. 

“Thank you… I don’t know what else to say…”

 “I want to thank you too.  Apparently there is more to my friend than I know, and I would be grateful to you for helping him.  Are you sure it wouldn’t be too much trouble with the two of us?”  They had said that it was okay, but Peter gave them an out if they wanted it.

Chuckling, Chuck was amused and commented.  “Yeah, two aren’t too much trouble...  If this takes too long you can even have Elizabeth come out with Satchmo.”

That had all of them looking at him in wonder and consternation. 

_How did he know about my dog, yet alone his name?!_   Peter wondered.

Noticing everyone’s expressions, Chuck got rather sheepish.  “How do I know your name, your dog, and everything else without being told?  Well, that is classified… perhaps I can explain the weirdness of my life in more detail later, but for now, that has to remain as a mysterious secret.  Also, I should be thanking the two of you.  Bryce has protected my family and friends to the price of everything that he has to give.  Peter, you have been his support when I couldn’t be.  I owe you two plenty, so this is only a small down payment if you want to look at it that way.”

Peter had no idea why, but he felt like he could trust this guy.  When Peter looked at Neal, he had the same expression of trust that he did when he looked at the agent.  _I thought that I was the only person he trusts…_ Then it hit… _Perhaps this guy is a friend as close to him as I am… How horrible he must feel to lose his friend so many times, only to have him turn up with no memory.  What if it was me who had to watch him die?  What if it was me that he forgot?_ Peter had a new respect for Chuck and he was looking forward to getting to know him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you everyone for reading, reviewing, leaving kudos, following, and choosing to favorite my stories and I :D


	3. Making Arrangements

*******

While Chuck went back inside to make a few more phone calls, Peter went to work on his own calls.

The first task was to call Hughes in order to tell him an idea of what was going on.

“Uh, Reese.  We have an unexpected situation going on here.”  He wasn’t sure what to say so he let his boss direct the conversation.

“What happened?”  Hughes had no idea what Peter could be talking about.

“The problem is that I can’t tell you everything, but from what I have been able to gather… Neal isn’t actually… Caffrey.  He seems to be from another agency, but he doesn’t remember a thing.  His team is going to work on figuring out what happened since… he went missing in the field.”  Peter hoped that he hadn’t said too much and feared that he would probably need to say more.

“Neal… is an agent?”  Hughes couldn’t believe what he was hearing.

“Maybe, the guy won’t say much, but he said to give you his number.  Apparently he is to be working as the go between for our agencies.”  Holding his breath, Peter waited until Hughes seemed to accept the situation.

“So, you’re saying that Neal has no memory, but he seems to be from another agency, and this agency is going to do an investigation to see what happened since he was last seen?  Am I missing anything?”  Hughes was just trying to get his mind around what Peter was saying.

“There is more to it, but yeah, that’s the basics.”  Peter kind of nodded.

There was a soft sound like Hughes was rubbing his face on the other side of the line.  “He sure knows how to complicate things doesn’t he…”  Taking a deep breath, Hughes continued.  “It sounds like I need to get your case reassigned and make arrangements for your stay to be extended.”

Laughing softly, Peter couldn’t help but think that was an understatement.  “His friend made it sound like that is his specialty.  Thanks Hughes, that is pretty much what we need at the moment.”

Hughes took down Chuck’s phone number and discussed a few more details of what he needed to arrange for them before he ended the call.

With the work related call finished, it was time to take on the personal call.

“Hey hon.”  He breathed a deep sigh.  After all of the trouble that had been going on with Neal lately, it was a relief to simply hear Elizabeth’s voice.

After greeting Peter in return, Elizabeth started some general conversation by asking how his case was proceeding.

“It’s not.  The case is being reassigned as something else has come up.”  He wanted to tell her, to share what he knew about their friend, but he couldn’t. 

Sensing that he couldn’t talk about the situation, she decided to ask other questions.  “Are you going to be there longer than you planned?”

“Likely, this case isn’t as cut and dry.”  Depending on what had been done to Neal, this case could take a long time to fully solve.

“Is Neal going to be staying with you?”  She prodded further.

 _Since Neal is the case…_ “Yes, Neal will be staying around.”

“You seem to be particularly tight lipped on this one.”  She was curious why he wouldn’t even open up a little.

“I would love to tell you what I know, but unfortunately, this has at least two agencies involved so I can’t talk about anything.  Even Hughes only got cryptic hints…”  He sighed again as he hated the cases that had particularly sensitive clearance situations because he couldn’t even tell his wife an idea of what he was doing.  It felt like he was keeping secrets, which he was, but that wasn’t how a marriage was supposed to work.

“Two agencies?  Who else is involved?”  She sounded both interested and concerned.

“I don’t know.  The guy is being very… secretive.  Then again, his family was there and he wants them kept safely away from this… even though some of his family started it from what I understand.”  That seemed to be an accurate understanding as he kept referring to the item being fought over as his father’s ‘something’ creation.

“Is it going to be dangerous?”  She was very concerned with that piece of information.

“…Not at the moment.  The other agency has ordered us to team up and find out what happened, so we are to be researching from a base for now.”  He was at least able to tell her the truth on that front.

“Just take care of yourself, hon.”  She was concerned about what the case could entail, but she was relieved to hear that he was going to be in a base instead of working in the field for this one.  It would be safer for him, right?

After talking about what was going on back in New York, they ended the conversation with the promise to speak again soon.

*******

Chuck’s “phone calls” were focused initially on telling his team what was going on via ear buds.

Sarah was relieved to hear that Bryce was okay after all, but she was concerned with what the Ring might have done to him in order to cause his memory loss.

Casey was less interested, but also relieved.  It rankled to fail at his job, and since they were supposed to save Bryce from the Ring, his death proved that they had failed.  Perhaps they could rectify their failure since he was alive after all?

Coming up with a plan, the team agreed that it would be best for Bryce, as Neal, to stay with Chuck.  That way Chuck could work with him as his friend, and Casey would already be in position to keep him safe should anyone try to take advantage of his weakened state.  Other than that, a team was being sent to run various tests on Bryce to find the cause of his amnesia and consequential return to an old alias.  Depending on the results, further planning would be made later after they had some more information.

With his team up to date, Chuck switched to contacting the general back again.

“What have you discovered?”  She was brusque as usual.

“Neal Caffrey is Bryce Larkin.  He seems to know his general history up until he was eighteen years of age, but then his memory switches over to the background of his Caffrey alias without the knowledge of college, the CIA, or even me.”  Chuck summarized his findings in the hopes that she would focus more on how much he had gotten from Bryce, instead of how much his sister had figured out when he brought that up.

“From what I have been able to discover, he was placed in prison and pulled from the joint operation with the FBI when Graham switched him to Operation Sandwall.  You know the general information of what happened up until he was killed again.  Then after some time passed for his injuries to heal, he showed back up in prison and was living the role of Neal Caffrey again.  This time though, he acted differently.  Instead of roaming around the world and pretending to pull cons, he escaped, was caught, and arranged for a deal with agent Burke.”

Chuck sat back and listened to her share the information that she had managed to gather.  By the sound of it, either this Mozzie person, the Ring, or both had done something to Neal.

*******

While they waited for Chuck to come back to them, Peter watched as Ellie decided to talk to Neal. 

She had never seen Bryce look so lost or forlorn.  It brought out the maternal big sister in her.  “So, Neal, you haven’t said that you would come and stay with us.”

Embarrassed, Neal felt like he had hurt her.  “I’m sorry.  I just…I don’t remember you…”  That and they didn’t seem to even want him in the Buyrmore, yet alone their home.

“No Neal, it’s us that should be apologizing to you.”  He tried to stop her but she refused to allow it.  “I mean it!  We didn’t know what you had done until today, but… that doesn’t change the fact that you literally sacrificed everything for us.”  She wiped some tears from her eyes as she thought about everything that her family had put him through. They would never be able to make it up to him.  “If you would, we would love to have you stay with us, and if you’re more comfortable with Chuck, then we’ll still see you as we live acrossed the courtyard.”

Bowing his head, Neal had no memory of anyone being grateful to him like this.  “Thank you, Ellie.”  He didn’t know what else to say.

Crying softly, Ellie reached out to hug him, but as it took him a moment to react to the hug, she ended up crying harder.  Had no one hugged him, or was it just her?

“I’m sorry.”  He didn’t know what to say or why she went from angry at him to crying on him.

As Peter observed, he had never seen Neal look so tongue tied.  It was like he had never been in this kind of situation before. Did he ever have a loving family, or was he always alone?  The more he saw Neal in this environment, the more he got the feeling that he didn’t really know his friend at all.

*******

When Chuck came back out, he started to arrange for the group of them to go to the apartments.  He rode with Peter and Neal while the others rode together in Ellie and Devon’s vehicle.

Arriving at the complex, Chuck walked Peter and Neal through and began to show them where everyone was. “The front apartment there belongs to Casey.  He is the colonel of the team and not the most sociable of people.  That one there, that belongs to my sister and her husband.  Then this one, this is Morgan’s and mine.”  Opening the door, he stood back and let them walk through in front of him.

Neal looked around quietly.  “I have been here before haven’t I?”

Laughing quietly, Chuck answered.  “Yeah, you popped up out of the shadows and scared me out in the courtyard.”

That amused Peter.  “Sounds like Neal.”

Directing the two men back to his room, he gave them a quick tour on the way.  Getting there, he started to set up two air beds on the floor for them to utilize for their stay.  Grabbing some spare bedding, he made up the beds and instructed Peter and Neal where to put their things.

Since they had stopped off at the hotel on their way, they had nearly everything that Peter and Neal had brought with them.  Still, there were a few things that they needed from the office so Chuck promised to take them later in order to finish transferring the case along to another team.

In the meanwhile they decided to go get some food to eat and finish introducing them to the rest of their group.

At the knock on the door, Chuck opened up to let the rest of the group in and introduced them as they walked through. 

“Devon and Ellie you have already met.”  They nodded as they continued to carry the food in to the table.

“Morgan here is my friend, roommate, and coworker.”  The little man awkwardly smiled at Peter before giving a suspicious look to Neal.

“Casey is the colonel that I mentioned.  His apartment is at the entrance to the complex making him our protector.”  He seemed to be a rather large and intimidating sort of a man.

“Last, but not least, is Sarah.  She is your ex-girlfriend and former partner.”  She kissed Chuck and looked sadly over at Neal.

“Apparently she is dating you now though.  Are you two partners?”  Neal observed calmly.

“That doesn’t bother you?”  Sarah was genuinely curious.

With a shrug, Neal didn’t seem to be bothered.  “I don’t remember either of you, so why would anything bother me?”

He had a point.  Since they couldn’t argue with that, the group settled in around the table for lunch.

Starting the conversation, Chuck asked various questions about New York, the people they knew there, and their work.

Enjoying the feeling of being on more familiar ground, Neal and Peter answered all of the questions.

*******

After the meal was finished, Casey took Morgan back to work.  Sarah also went to work with the request to be called when they knew what they were doing for the evening.  Finally, Ellie gave Neal another hug and was relieved that he didn’t freeze up on her.  This time he reacted more readily.  

Before Devon followed Ellie out the door, he shook Neal’s hand and pulled him into a hug.  “Thanks Bruce, we owe you a great deal it turns out.”

“Bruce?”  Neal questioned.

With a soft smile, Devon explained.  “That is who I thought you were when I first met you.  Sarah hadn’t wanted us to know that you were her ex-boyfriend so she called you Bruce instead of Bryce.”  Then he shrugged.  “The whole team had been on a mission that went… bad, causing Sarah to be hospitalized and you had gash from a piece of shrapnel.  I treated your injury and gave you a speech about leaving Sarah alone as I thought you were stalking her or something.” Pausing to glance over his shoulder, Devon checked on Ellie’s progress before he turned back to finish.  “This is the first time that I have really gotten to meet you and I hope that you won’t mind me getting to know you better.”

Taking note of the information, Neal nodded back at Devon.  “Thanks for telling me that, maybe one of these days I’ll be able to remember these things on my own.  In the meanwhile, I hope to get to know you too.”

Devon patted him on the shoulder in a friendly manner and moved to catch up to his wife who was waiting for him at their apartment.

When Neal turned around, Peter noticed that he seemed to be taking note of everything.  It was like there were parts of him that recognized things so he was looking for reasons why.  Reaching out, Peter put a hand on his shoulder to offer support.

Looking up, Neal seemed to be grateful for Peter’s accepting support.  He wasn’t interrogating, suspicious, or prodding.  Peter was doing a great job of just supporting him so he hoped that his look would convey how grateful he was for that.

Catching the expression, Peter gave him a slight nod to acknowledge that he had received the message.  Giving Neal’s shoulder a light squeeze, he reinforced that he meant the support before they followed Chuck out to the car for the drive into the FBI offices.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you everyone for reading, reviewing, leaving kudos, following, and choosing to favorite :D


	4. Federal Agents

*******

When the group arrived at the FBI, Chuck put his badge on his waist to make it easier for him to pass through security.  Then after they were in the building, he stepped back and let Peter lead them through to the team’s offices.

Walking through the lobby for the elevator bank, Chuck was surprised to run into Hannah as she rounded the corner with an arm full of files.

“Hannah?  I didn’t know you worked with the FBI.”  Gathering himself after the surprise he added.  “Here, let me help you with those.”  Leaning down, he began to help her gather the files that had spread acrossed the floor.

“No Chuck, some of those are confidential and require clearance levels to see their contents.”  She wasn’t happy with him and there was something to her tone as she spoke.  Then she caught a glimpse of the flash as the light reflected off of his badge.  “You’re… an agent?”  It was obvious that she couldn’t believe that.

Blushing a little, Chuck glanced down at his badge.  It wasn’t normal for him to be wearing it so he wasn’t expecting anyone to make comments.  “I never wear my badge as my work is secret, but yeah, I’m an agent.”

“So that’s why…?”  She trailed off thinking about all of the weird things that transpired during her time with him.

“Not entirely, but a lot of it.  A friend got me involved with government work several years ago and turned everything around or upside down.  Since then I have had to keep secrets about so many things.”  He trailed off as he couldn’t go into details, but at least it gave Hannah an idea of why things had gone the way they had.

“Did you actually like me?”  It was a question she needed the answer to.

“Yes, I did like you a lot.  But when other circumstances changed showing me my heart was more with another, I refused to lead you on.  You deserve someone who puts you first, not just part of a heart, but a whole heart.” He stood up as he handed her the rest of the files that he had collected.

For a moment they stood looking at each other as she finally got closure, and he had the relief of her knowing something of the truth.

Then with a nod she turned to continue on her way.

Before Chuck could move to catch up with Peter and Neal, who were waiting for him, his attention was caught by a commotion entering the building.

*******

Peter stood watching Chuck’s surprise encounter with an acquaintance and waited patiently as he seemed to be wrapping up a conversation.  When they began to go their separate ways, Chuck paused and turned his attention to the entrance.

Following his example, Peter put his focus towards the entrance as well. 

A group of officers were escorting some prisoners into the building.  Although they were following protocol, one man seemed to be particularly dangerous as he was bound by more chains than the others and had more officers dedicated to his transportation.

To Peter’s horror, the man took a furtive look around the room before moving into action.  Dropping his chains, he revealed that he had managed to escape unnoticed.  Pushing the nearest officer to the ground, he grabbed his gun, and began moving in tandem with the other prisoners.

With swift and practiced moves, the men overcame the agents with them and either knocked them out, or shifted them into shields before the rest of the room could react.

Transitioning into action, Chuck moved with sure motion and strong commands to handle the situation.

“Everybody down, get out of target range.”  Pushing Hannah, he made her move along with the others until they were safely hidden from the gunmen.  Then he waved for Peter to keep Neal safely back where they were.

Standing alone in front of the armed men, Chuck stood strongly in the center of the room.  “So, you think that just because the FBI is bringing you in for questioning, that you can use the opportunity to escape?”

“Who are you?”  The front man sneered.  “Besides the guy that we are going to fill full of holes!”  He laughed as he moved to open fire.

Fluttering his eyes, Chuck started moving to dodge every bullet while whipping out his own weapons to return fire around the hostages. 

Landing back on his feet unscathed, Chuck simply returned the tranque pistols to their hidden holsters as the remaining men charged him on foot.   _Since they couldn’t shoot him, maybe they could out fight him with their superior numbers?_

Shifting into a combative position, Chuck met the onslaught with ready hands.

As the FBI watched, one man took on half a dozen in full martial arts. 

Chuck was quick.  He would disarm one man on one side, knock a man out on the other, only to move on to the next man close enough to strike.  With each movement, he either dodged an attack, disarmed a foe, or rendered a man unconscious. 

In only a few minutes, Chuck had single handedly removed the threat with no one harmed.  It was amazing to the onlookers.

Then as an accomplice moved from the back hallway near the elevators, Neal moved to stop him before he could shoot Chuck in the back.

Utilizing his own forgotten combat skills, Neal disarmed the man and rendered him unconscious in mere moments.

Pausing, he turned to Peter with a bewildered expression.  _Where did that come from?_ was written all over his face.

Looking to Chuck, both had questioning expressions on their faces as they wondered how Neal could know how to fight like that if he had no memory.

Walking over to them, Chuck noticed Neal’s discomfort at his combative skills and patted him on the shoulder to comfort him.  “Being an agent isn’t all about violence; it’s about working to prevent bad things from happening.  Don’t worry, your style is to usually con your way in unnoticed, a quick get away, and unarmed combat for when you need to defend yourself.  Thanks for keeping him from shooting me in the back.”

“Where did I learn that?”  Neal managed to get out the question bouncing around in his brain.

Contemplating what he had seen, Chuck had a theory.  “Hmm, whatever they did to you, your memory isn’t completely gone… suppressed maybe?”

Seeing that Neal had some hope that all was not lost, Chuck patted him on the shoulder before directing him back to Peter.  Nodding to the older agent, he directed Peter to take care of him while he helped to clean the situation up.

Accepting the responsibility, Peter put a hand on Neal’s shoulder to direct him off to the side with him so that they would be out of the way.

“Are you alright Neal?”  The man still seemed a little shaken up by the actions that he didn’t know he was capable off.

“Yeah… just… I thought…”  He seemed to be physically alright even though he was mentally trying to come to terms with not being who he thought he was.  “I just disarmed a man and knocked him out with combat training skills that I didn’t even know I had…”

Putting an arm acrossed his friend’s shoulder, Peter tried to comfort him.  “Yeah, you did an act of violence… “  Preventing Neal from interrupting him and tightening his grip he kept him from turning away from him, Peter made sure that he listened.  “But, you did it to save a friend’s life.  That man would have put a bullet in Chuck’s back.”  Sighing, he tried to calm Neal down.  “Remember what Chuck said?  Being an agent isn’t about violence, it’s about preventing bad things from happening.  You’re actually an agent and you just kept another agent from taking a bullet in the back.”

“I know Peter. “  He took a deep breath.  “It’s just, as far as I can remember, I’m a nonviolent person.  Then I just went kung-fu crazy on some guy…”  There were tremors running through his system as the shock of everything started to catch up to him.

Giving him quiet support, Peter kept his arm acrossed Neal’s shoulder and let him work through his new circumstances.

While they were sitting there, Hannah walked up to them.  “You’re, you’re those guys from the Buymore aren’t you?”  She asked.

Being careful of what he said, Peter answered her.  “Yes, and you are?”

Introducing herself, Hannah held out her hand.  “My name is Hannah.  I used to date Chuck and worked with him at the Buymore for a while.”  Seeing the questions in their eyes she added.  “Not the government stuff.  That is new. “

 “It’s new for everyone.  I finally got to quit lying to my family today too.”   Turning around, she was surprised to see that Chuck had walked up behind her. 

Whipping her eyes up to glare at him, she confronted him.  “What was that?  You single handedly… were you trying to get yourself killed?”

Sighing, Chuck faced all three of them as they were now directing the same question to him.  “That was not me going suicidal.  I can’t go into details, but I am trained to handle more if necessary.”  Making a face as he added, “Besides, I arrested most of those men in the first place, so…”

Hannah shook her head at him.  “You are full of surprises Chuck.”  She didn’t seem to be so angry at him anymore.  There wasn’t anything between them, but at least they could part amiably this time.  With her work waiting for her, Hannah had to hurry off in order to meet a deadline.

Getting up, Peter extended the gesture of support to Chuck.  “That was quite a sight Chuck.”  With a final pat on the shoulder, he pointed to some agents acrossed the room who were beckoning for him.  “Why don’t Neal and I go start getting our case transferred while you finish up down here?”

Agreeing, Chuck went back to work while Peter and Neal turned back to the elevator bank.

*******

While Neal and Peter went upstairs to begin transferring their case, Chuck had to go back to working with the local FBI agents to clean up the mess in the lobby.

As he came up to the gathered group of agents, the lead agent moved forwards to address Chuck.  “Let me see that badge of yours.  I want to verify your identity.”

Passing it over with a shrug, Chuck wasn’t concerned.  “The director isn’t going to be happy with me, but at least no one got hurt.”

Having two agents keep an eye on Chuck, the boss turned to verify his information.

Lounging, Chuck could sense the nerves of the two agents.  He had just taken down over half a dozen men like they were children at play compared to his combat skills… what were two going to do?

One of them recognized him from the Buymore.  “Is this what your ‘installations’ usually consist of?”  He questioned curiously.

Laughing slightly, Chuck just shrugged at him.  “An ‘installation’ is an offsite job of helping a person put an electronic system together.  This is just being in the right place at the right time.”

“Uh huh.”  The agent didn’t believe him.  “And I guess you got that badge out of a cereal box after learning combat like that by watching ninja movies?”

“Mmhm, and I learned marksmanship by playing Duck Hunt.”  Chuck played along.

A few of the agents laughed as they enjoyed Chuck’s banter.  He wasn’t what they would expect for some big tough CIA agent to be.  Instead, he had a human side to him that made him someone that they could talk to.  That made him all the more interesting to them.

When the leader turned back after a few moments, he acted apologetic.  “Thank you for cooperating Agent Carmichael.  We appreciate your help here today.”

Accepting the unvoiced apology for his previous rudeness, Chuck didn’t take it personally.  “I’ve dealt with agents like them from the beginning.”  Seeing the surprise on the man’s face, Chuck clarified.  “They are Ring agents based off of a CIA splinter group that has been causing problems for decades.”

Shaking hands, the two men turned and continued cleaning up the mess.  Chuck had made new friends, and the local FBI learned that they had a legend living nearby should they need him.

*******

Upstairs, Peter and Neal found their work to be a great deal simpler.  Peter had to sign several forms and Neal just had to stay close to him in order to remain in his radius.

When their work was completed, Peter and Neal grabbed their possessions from the office and told the team goodbye.

Riding down the elevator, Peter laughed lightly to himself.

“What?”  Neal asked.

“Did you see any of this coming when we simply went to the Buymore to fix my phone this morning?”  He was astounded by how many things had changed.

Seeing the humor, Neal laughed a little too.  “I don’t think anyone could have seen this coming Peter.”  Then he muttered.  “It’s unbelievable, and I even witnessed it.”

“I’ve come to expect the unbelievable when you are involved Neal.  It seems to be something of your trademark.”  Peter patted him on the shoulder again.

“You’ve been doing that a lot lately.”  Neal noted.  He wasn’t complaining as it wasn’t a bad thing, but it wasn’t normal either.

“Doing what?”  Peter questioned.

“Acting friendly.”  Neal clarified.  “Lately, you bark orders, keep tie pieces for souvenirs, and generally keep your distance from me both personally and physically.  Why are you suddenly reaching out so much?”

Sighing, Peter knew that this conversation was overdue but, as the elevator reached the ground floor, it would have to continue to wait.

Walking back into the lobby, they found Chuck chatting with a few agents.  After exchanging some contact information, Chuck was ready to leave.  It was time for them to get going.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you everyone for reading, reviewing, leaving kudos, following, and choosing to favorite :D


	5. Evening Comforts

*******

With the testing delayed until the morning, Chuck went Peter and Neal back to his place for the evening.

“Ellie and Awesome got called in to the hospital so they aren’t going to be around until tomorrow night when we will see them for dinner.  For the evening, Sarah is bringing over some pizzas and Morgan insists that we play some board game or another.”  He shrugged as it looked like they were going to be brought into a family evening despite being strangers.  “You guys don’t have to play if you don’t want to.”  Chuck offered them an out just in case they were uncomfortable.

“Is Casey coming?”  Neal questioned.  The big guy obviously wasn’t his biggest fan.

“Yeah, he has mellowed since you were last around him.  Sure, the guy still likes his guns and needs to punch someone once in a while, but he has also remembered how to relax.  He won’t hurt you or cause trouble Neal, you can unwind around him.”  Chuck had noticed that something told Neal to be careful around Casey.  Considering that the man had once killed him, Chuck couldn’t blame him, but as Casey had no reason to react violently it shouldn’t be a concern.

Peter waited to see if Neal would accept the invitation or if he would rather do something else, but Neal seemed to want to get to know these people from his past.  Taking initiative, Peter accepted the invitation for both of them.

“Great!”  Chuck smiled.  Then he got a bit of a mischievous look before he produced two Nerf guns.  “We can play this too.”

Neal rolled his eyes.  “Seriously, you want to play ‘Gotcha?  On the drive earlier you said you were waiting for me to get my memory back first?”

Shrugging, Chuck couldn’t resist.  “Yeah, I want a rematch then too, but this will give everyone a chance to play as we have several of these around.”

Interested, Peter looked forwards to getting to see a glimpse of Neal’s life as himself.  Sure he couldn’t remember, but Chuck had said that he was acting a lot like himself in college.  _Maybe this was what Neal was like before everything happened?_

_*******_

Settling in around the table with a slice of pizza and a soda, Peter watched as Neal and Morgan squabbled over their positions.

“I want to be Peacock, she is closer to the rooms.”  Morgan whined.

“Exactly, which is why I picked her.  You said that guest got to pick first?”  Neal didn’t seem to know what the problem was.

As the bickering continued, Peter enjoyed his food while endeavoring to ignore them for the moment.

When Chuck sat down, he had reached a point of having enough.  “Morgan!  I know that you don’t like Neal, but seriously.  Get over it; it’s just a piece in a board game.”   Since Morgan continued to pout, Chuck decided to pull him aside for a conversation between the two of them.

Following reluctantly, Morgan agreed to go.

Once they reached a place to talk in private, Chuck got started.  “Come on Morgan.  In college, Bryce took a huge risk to protect me.  If the government found out what he did… I don’t even want to know what might happen to him.  Then he undertook helping my father and protecting what he created from some of the nation’s most dangerous enemies which got him killed, twice.  Finally, he shows up having lost most of his memory and who he is because the others and I didn’t get to him in time?  Seriously, can’t you give him a break and at least treat him like a guest instead of the enemy?”

“He didn’t have to watch you after everything that he did to you…”  Morgan grumbled.

Taking a deep breath, Chuck didn’t want to alienate Morgan, but he needed him to see his point.  “It was either that or he would have had to watch the family deal with losing me as I would have disappeared never to be seen again.  By now, I would probably have been dead for several years if he hadn’t intervened.”  Taking a few minutes to think, he tried to see what was under Morgan’s skin.  “Why do you envy him so much?”

“I don’t envy him!”  He tried to deny it, but it was obvious that Chuck had hit a chord.

Giving him the look to spill, Chuck refused to take that.

“Okay.  Maybe I do envy him… a little.”  Just because he was giving in a little didn’t mean that he was going to fully admit it.

Tilting his head and raising a brow, Chuck pushed for him to get it off of his chest.

“Chuck…”  Morgan whined.  When Chuck continued to refuse to give, he pouted a little more before giving up.  “Fine.  He comes from a wealthy background, he is smart, and he always gets everything…”

Rolling his eyes, Chuck couldn’t believe that Morgan could be so petty, but he wasn’t finished.

Muttering as low as he could, while still being heard, Morgan added one more point, the one most important to him.  “And he was becoming your best friend… I am your best friend.”

Seeing the heart of the issue, Chuck focused on that.  “You will always be my best friend Morgan, but that doesn’t mean that I can’t have other close friends too.  Besides, Neal doesn’t have much of anything Morgan… not even a name to call his own.”

That stopped Morgan up short.  “Doesn’t have a name… but Bryce?”

“Isn’t his real name.  He can never use his real details in full… or he’ll die.”

“Why?”  Morgan wanted to know.

“It’s his story to tell, so you’ll have to talk to him.”  Chuck knew that he had permission to tell Peter, (‘ _You can tell him, I trust Peter too you know’),_ but not Morgan.  “Are you going to at least treat him like a guest… for me if nothing else?”

Nodding his head, Morgan agreed to behave.  “Fine.”  He still didn’t like it, but he could behave for Chuck… as long as Bryce didn’t stick around too long.

Returning to the table, they were able to enjoy a nice dinner with the group.

*******

Later, after they had eaten and finished a game or two, it was time to play their other game for the evening.

Laughing, Peter watched as the group divided out into teams to play the game.  He wasn’t surprised that he found himself teamed up with Neal so that his friend would have a familiar face to rely on.

“Come on, Neal.  Do you think we can beat this team of agents and show them how we work back home?”  Peter jostled Neal’s shoulder with his own and tried to boost his confidence.

Neal laughed as well.  “I don’t know… they’re good too.  Besides, they know my techniques, but I don’t remember them myself.”  He didn’t seem to be too intimidated, but he wasn’t exactly optimistic either.

  Peter understood the feeling.  Neal only worked with the best people, and these people knew his combat skills better than he or Peter did, so they were really working to a disadvantage.

Still, Peter wanted Neal to enjoy the battle, so he tried to build up his enthusiasm.  “Doesn’t that make success harder to achieve and therefore more valuable?  Come on, if we lose then we lose, but if we win…”  Giving Neal a challenging look, he added to it.  “What happened to the Neal who likes a good competition?  You spent three years challenging me to an international game of cat and mouse… Don’t tell me that an old college game that you don’t remember is too much?” 

That did it.  Neal squared his shoulders and glared at Peter.  “It’s not too much and you know it.”

Feeling triumphant already, Peter was happy to have completed the basics of his goal.  “That’s the spirit!”

Diving into the play, they bounced around the apartment and spilled the game out into the courtyard as their numbers created the need to spread out as they got more competitive. 

With the game heating up, Peter found himself having more fun than he had had… well, in a long time.

Neal was in the zone.  The man seemed to have a sense of his skills as he was holding his own, but he wasn’t beating his opponents by any means.  Instead, his focus seemed to be more intent on learning how the others were playing and mimicking them. 

 _At least he is finding a way to participate and is attempting to learn something of his missing past._ Peter thought.  Even if Neal and he lost the game, the fact that Neal was trying to find something of himself and having fun while he was at it was all that mattered to Peter.

In addition to watching Neal look for the missing pieces of his past, Peter was also enjoying getting to know Neal better himself.  Suddenly, he learned firsthand that Neal was very protective of him when Casey tried to sneak up behind him to surprise him.  Instead of getting Peter, the man got Neal with a ‘fatal’ shot. 

That lesson had mixed reactions from Peter.  He enjoyed learning that Neal was protective of him, but he learned to fear what that might lead to should anything ever go wrong in the field.

As the evening got later, the game eventually dissolved.  Casey went back to his place, Morgan retired to his room, and Chuck left for a walk with Sarah. 

*******

With some private time to talk, Peter decided that it was time to answer Neal’s earlier question. 

Settling in on the couch, he had Neal take the seat by him so that they could talk easily.  “You asked me why I have been being so friendly today after… well, not being so friendly.”  Taking a moment, he gathered his thoughts.  “The answer is that everything changed today.”

Shifting position, Neal wasn’t impressed.  Did Peter really just say that he was only forgiving him because it turned out that he was missing a large part of his life due to some unknown cause and that he turned out to be a fellow agent reputed to be a legendary hero?  If that was the only reason that Peter was changing his tune, then Neal didn’t want to hear it.

Rubbing his face as he realized how bad that sounded, Peter tried to start again, earlier in his feelings.  “Neal.  Listen to me.”  When his friend refused to comply, he reached out placed his arm acrossed his shoulders again.   It hurt when Neal only stiffened, but he was determined to see the conversation through.  “Are you going to give me a chance to finish explaining, or is this going to be payback for my stubborn resolve that you were guilty?”

That at least had the effect of Neal giving him the same disbelieving look that he had been giving him for weeks.  “You still never told me why you believe me to be so guilty.”

Wincing again, Peter noticed that Neal still used the present tense in understanding that Peter still blamed him for something.  “Neal… to my knowledge, before today, you have always been a con man.  The man that I meant had forged bonds, the man that I chased committed various crimes both known and unknown, and even as my consultant you still pull shenanigans with Mozzie.  Don’t give me that look, you and I both know that it’s true.” 

Refusing to acknowledge any ‘alleged crimes,’ Neal dropped the expression rather than discuss that topic further.

Picking up his story again, Peter continued.  “With the core part of my knowledge being based around your crime skills to either commit or solve them, it’s not farfetched to believe that you would be tempted by the score of a life time… besides,  I have evidence at home that links you to the crime.”

Seeing the situation from a new light, Neal was suddenly all attention.  “But I didn’t commit the crime… In fact, I haven’t even seen anything to say that a crime has been committed.  All I know is that after twenty four hours of fighting for my life, or celebrating its continuation, that you suddenly go off on me about how I stole the treasure and you know it.  Since then, it has been nothing but accusations, midnight lie detectors, tie souvenirs, and all seemingly unfounded.  Why didn’t you tell me that there was a reason for it all?”

Understanding his friend’s perspective for the first time, Peter could only explain his own.  “Because, if you had done it, then it was best for the evidence to remain untainted.”

Feeling hurt, Neal backed away.  “So you didn’t even trust me enough to tell me that there was evidence?  Instead you initiated an off the books investigation while putting me through all of that… for what?  In order to prove that I did a crime you really hoped I hadn’t, and that I had shown every sign that I hadn’t?”

Defending himself, Peter continued.  “Neal, you’re the smartest man that I know… with all this new stuff, you might be smarter than I thought.  Why would I risk telling the best criminal and smartest man that I know that I have evidence?  You’ve doctored evidence against you before, which was one reason that we had such a difficult time catching you.  With such a catch on the line, what was there to stop you from doing it again?”

“You…”  Neal wanted Peter to believe in his trust of the agent and his genuine feelings.  The man was his best friend, paternal big brother, and the guiding mentor that kept him afloat in his crazy life. _Why would he damage that relationship for blood money?_

Remembering back to another time, Peter didn’t say much to point out his reason.  “You nearly left before…”

Hanging his head, Neal was relieved that they were finally talking their problems through.  “So you feared that I had betrayed you, but your sense of justice wanted the crime to be solved, regardless of the guilty party?”

Nodding, Peter finished the idea.  “And you had no idea what was going on, only that I seemed to have turned on you for no apparent reason.”   Feeling his heart ache even more as he took the recent reveals into account, he had to say a few more words at the moment.  “I’m so sorry Neal.  If I could take so much of that back, I would, but at the time…”  ‘ _It seemed to be right’_ was left unsaid.

“I’m sorry too.”  At Peter’s questioning look he added.  “That your emotions were yanked around so needlessly.  We could be solving this together if someone wasn’t using me for the fall guy.”

Curious, Peter asked.  “Do you think that you know who did it?”

Shrugging, Neal didn’t really have an answer.  “Maybe, but if I’m right… then I have probably been betrayed again.”  Lifting his head to meet Peter’s steady eyes with his sad ones, he added.  “There is only one person that I can think of who probably pulled that off.”

The conversation fell into silence as Neal thought about who might have used him and why.  Unable to finish the conversation, Peter figured they would have another chance later.

*******

Chuck arrived home after his time with Sarah to find the two men fast asleep on the couch.  With a smile, he made sure they were comfortable before heading to bed himself.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you everyone for reading, reviewing, leaving kudos, and choosing to favorite :D


	6. New Day

*******

Waking up with a crick in his neck, Peter looked around at the unfamiliar place.  It was homey and filled with random nerd memorabilia which made him feel oddly comfortable.  With a smile, he remembered that they were at Neal’s old friend’s apartment. 

As he stretched, he thought back through the previous day, and he couldn’t believe all that had happened.  Then again, who would expect to discover that their best friend wasn’t who they thought they were?

_My partner and best friend is not only the smartest person that I know, but he is also a secret hero and legendary agent._  

Smiling, he had been proud of Neal before, but the new information made him impossibly more proud of his friend.  Every time that he thought Neal had reached a low, there turned out to be a reason, and every time he seemed to reach his highest heights, he worked a little harder and did something even more amazing.

Hearing a sound beside him, he looked over as Neal started to move.  The man also seemed to have a crick in his neck, but he seemed to have slept well despite the crazy day.

“How did you sleep Neal?”

“Hmm… neck doesn’t like Chuck’s couch.”  He mumbled.

Laughing, Peter nodded in agreement.  “Mine doesn’t either.  Still, you didn’t answer how you slept.”

Stretching as he woke up more, Neal questioned Peter’s interest in his sleep. 

“The reason I ask is because yesterday you learned that you’re not who you think you are, that a big part of your life is missing, and that someone did something to you horrible enough to block your memory.  Today we are supposed to start testing to see if they can figure out what happened to you.  In your shoes, that would be a lot of reasons for a bad night’s sleep.”  He was worried about his friend and wasn’t going to let anything slide if he could help it.

Enjoying the concern that his friend was showing, Neal relaxed.  “I’m alright Peter.  Apparently, whatever training or experience I have from before is still working, because, except for the sleeping upright part, I slept fine.”  Rubbing his neck to emphasize the pain, he smiled reassuringly over at his friend.

Relaxing, Peter knew that Neal would be okay in the long run, it was getting his life back into order that was going to be rough.  “Good, you’re going to need that by the sound of things.  How about we go get cleaned up before breakfast huh?”

Agreeing, Neal told him to go first as he was going to make a call or two before he got his shower.

“Remember, no telling anyone about what is going on here.  If I can’t tell Elizabeth, then you don’t get to tell Mozzie.”  He didn’t want Neal endangered, even by himself.

“Don’t worry, I have no intention of sharing those details, but he would be suspicious if I didn’t contact him.”  There was something there, but Neal wouldn’t share what was going on.

*******

When Chuck got up, he was pleased to see the couch empty and hear the shower running.  His guests were going for the day.  Walking out to see how Morgan was doing, he decided to get some cereal while he waited for his turn in the bathroom.

“Morning Morgan.”  He greeted the little man.

“It will be better when the Nemesis leaves…”  Apparently, he was behaving to Neal’s face, but not behind his back.

Rolling his eyes, Chuck didn’t want to bring the argument back up.  Morgan was behaving as well as he expected.  “He is sticking around until we can explain what happened to him or until the agencies order otherwise…”  Shuddering, he really hoped that they didn’t try to stick him in a hole if they couldn’t restore him to active duty.

“What might happen to him?”  Morgan caught that something upset Chuck.

“There are no particular threats on the table at the moment… but, considering some of the things that I have seen.”  He paused to run his fingers through his hair.  “One possibility is that he could be forced into an underground facility… he would literally never see the light of day again.”

Dropping his spoon, Morgan was intrigued.  “He would never come back?”

Disliking the idea of enthusiasm, Chuck glared.  “Morgan, Neal is one of my closest friends and he literally saved everyone’s lives… including yours.  Do you really think that I would be okay if I were to fail him?”

Hanging his head, Morgan realized what was wrong with his words.  “No.  I don’t wish that on him either.  Still, I don’t like it when he is around.  He does mean things.”

“How many times do I have to tell you this… he watched out for me in college and he has given everything that he has to protect my life, my family, and his country.  Are you saying that it is mean of him to risk everything for that?  Sure, some of his actions could have gone better… but then again, he didn’t exactly have much of a choice.”

Ducking his head, Morgan knew that Chuck had a point.  Still, it was hard for him to let go of such a grudge.  “I still don’t like him.”

Chuck was rescued from having to argue further by the sound of Peter entering the kitchen space.

“Good morning, Chuck, Morgan.”  He nodded to each of them looking around the kitchen.  Unsure of what to do, he stood awkwardly as he waited for an invite or instructions.

Remembering his manners, Chuck greeted him back and moved to point out where things were.  “You can help yourself to whatever suits you.  We usually just eat cereal.  The bowls are in the cupboard there, the spoons in the drawer to your left, and there are a few more boxes in the cupboard above the fridge.  Otherwise, there is toast, eggs, and even a few pieces of cold pizza if that is more to your preference.”

Feeling more at home than he expected, Peter grabbed himself a bowl, spoon, and found a more preferable kind of cereal in the cupboard.  Settling down, he dug into the food and enjoyed his Lucky Charms.  At the looks from the other two men he smile and quipped.  “We could use all of the luck possible.”

Laughing, Chuck decided to make a few comments of his own.  “So he found another nerd to befriend… there is something familiar about you though.”

Knowing the answer, Peter looked at Chuck and waited to see if he could figure it out.  He had figured it out watching how Neal interacted with Chuck the day before.

Staring back, Chuck tried to understand what his brain was catching.  Then suddenly, with a gasp he understood.  “You’re like me!?”  Thinking the thought through again, he double checked himself.  “Brown features, he trusts you, you’re an agent, a nerd, and he seems to look at you like a brother, but an older brother instead of a younger like he treats me.”  Snorting a little bit, he wasn’t sure what he felt about the sudden realization.  “So, he lost his memory and found another friend like me…”

“Don’t go there Chuck.  He didn’t replace you, and I am not a replacement.”  Peter clearly didn’t like that idea any more than Chuck did.

“What are you replacing Peter?”  Neal questioned as he entered the room.

“Nothing Neal.”  The table went quiet as neither man wanted to discuss their feelings of insecurity with the source of the cause.

Not looking up from his cereal, Morgan blew that for them.  “You don’t run off and replace Chuck… that is not cool!  Especially not with an older FBI version…”  Having finished his breakfast, and done his damage for the morning, Morgan decided to go ride his bike into the Buymore as work was better than having to deal with Neal. 

Pausing, Neal looked at Peter and Chuck as he contemplated what was just implied.  “Chuck, I don’t remember you, but you don’t seem like someone that can be replaced.  And Peter, I seem to have known Chuck longer, but you are not a replacement.  It seems that I just got lucky enough to meet two honest agents that I can trust with my past, my life, and my future.  Whatever similarities that you have are either coincidental, or a bi-product of you both having traits that I admire.”  With his piece said, Neal returned his focus to finding breakfast while the other two agents reacted silently behind him.

Looking at each other, the two were relieved to hear his thoughts on the matter and thrilled to hear how much he trusted them.  There had been times when both men questioned their importance in his life so to hear that he valued them as much as they did him was something they were grateful for.

Oblivious to their peaceful expressions, Neal settled in with his own bowl of cereal and started to eat.

Smiling at each other, Peter and Chuck ate their breakfast until Neal noticed that they weren’t talking anymore.

“Are you guys seriously still reflecting on what I said?”  He questioned them.

“No…”  Peter denied.

“Uh, no…”  Chuck tried to follow suit.

Seeing through their efforts, Neal just sighed.  “Why don’t you just say what is on your minds instead of sitting there smiling?”

Smiling broader, Peter followed instructions.  “That’s the second time that you have said how much you trust me.  There have been times when I questioned why you have stayed when you are obviously capable of leaving… that is at least part of the answer.”

Seeing that they had a conversation to have, Chuck said his piece after he put his bowl in the sink.  Placing his hand on Neal’s shoulder he had one comment to make.  “You’ve proven how much you trust me over the years, now it’s my turn to work on proving to you how much I trust you.”

With that, he left to get ready for the day as the bathroom was finally open.

*******

Understanding what Chuck was doing, Peter made eye contact with him while Neal reflected on what Chuck had said to him.  Nodding to the man, he agreed to work through some more of their issues as it had been touched on again.

After a few moments he started the conversation.  “You were right last night Neal.”  Waiting until Neal made eye contact, he continued.  “The treasure wasn’t the only thing that I blamed you for… I was angry that the whole situation put El in danger.”  With a catch in his throat he tried to shake the thoughts from his mind.  “If I let my mind wonder too far, it is still easy to imagine what Keller could have done to her, and that terrifies me.”

“I’m surprised that you still let me even talk to her…”  Neal muttered.

“Neal…”  Peter was hurt by those words.  Rubbing a hand through his hair, he knew that this was definitely something that needed to be addressed.  “I let you talk to Elizabeth because I trust you with her life.”

Whipping his head up to look at Peter in shock, Neal struggled to find words.  “So, you don’t trust me with a picture, but you trust me with what you hold most dear?  That doesn’t make sense.”

Reaching out as he had done so many times recently, Peter wanted to anchor his words with his touch.  “Neal.  I trust you to have my back in the field.  Never once have I feared that you would put me in danger on purpose.  Have I feared that your criminal past would be too much, would end up calling you away with the allure of treasures?  Yeah, the submarine was a lot to compete with.  Do I trust you with my wife, her friendship, even her life?  Yes.  I knew that if she were to be in danger, that you would do anything to help me, and when that situation became a reality with Keller, you risked your life for hers thereby proving my theory correct.  From the beginning, I trusted you enough to take your deal.  Does that mean that I haven’t had difficulties?  No, because it has been hard sometimes.”

With a smile, he had more to say.  “There is something that I have to admit though.”  Squeezing his friend’s shoulder reassuringly, Peter wanted to reinforce the most important part of the conversation.  “My decision to take you on as my consultant has been full of its ups and downs, but it was my second best decision, with the first being to propose to and marry my wife, of course.”  As Neal looked at him with surprise and relief, he had one more point to make.  “Yes, I have been mad at you for the recent events, but they weren’t your fault.  As for why I was hurt so much, it is because you are the little brother that I have never had.  I’m proud to call you family Neal, and that was before all of this… you are not a disappointment to me Neal.”

Seeing that Neal was trying to compose his emotions, Peter squeezed one last time, patted his shoulder, and settled back into his bowl of cereal.

When they had finished, Peter picked up the cereal boxes to return them to their place when Neal put a hand on his arm.  Looking up at him with the biggest and most open expression that Peter had ever seen, Neal finally had his response. 

“Thank you Peter.  I needed to hear that.”

Returning the light touch, Peter smiled at him.  “We aren’t back to where we were, but I think that we are going to be several steps ahead when this all settles down.”

Smiling in relief, Neal returned the look.  “Me too.”

*******

Once he was ready to go, Chuck returned to the kitchen to find the room picked up.  Looking around, he found his guests relaxing on the couch as they waited for him.   Unnoticed, he watched them. 

As they were making general conversation, their positions showed them to be more relaxed and their expressions were more peaceful.  Whatever they had discussed in his absence had done them both a world of good.

Announcing his presence, Chuck got their attention.  “Hey guys, are you ready to go?”

Jumping slightly, the others looked over to him before grabbing their jackets.

“Yeah.  We might as well get this over with.”  Neal sounded a little nervous.

Patting him on the shoulder again, Peter tried to reassure him.  “It will be fine Neal.”

Locking up, Chuck started to tell them more about the secret base.  As it was their destination for the day, it was time to tell them more about it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you everyone for reading, leaving kudos, following, and choosing to favorite :D


	7. Secret Base

*******

As they drove, Chuck spun stories of a secret place hidden beneath the city.

Rolling their eyes at each other, Peter and Neal didn’t believe him.  His stories sounded a bit too much like something Mozzie would spin.

Realizing that they didn’t believe him, Chuck thought that it would be great to watch their faces as he proved his stories true.

“So, neither of you believe me huh.”  He smirked at them.  “I must admit, I wouldn’t have believed it if Sarah had told me about the place before showing me.  Still, it is going to be so much fun to watch your faces when I show you that I am not lying.”

“Uh-uh, and we are supposed to believe that we go into the yogurt shop, enter the freezer, and with the right details, we can enter into a secret government base?”  When the other two stopped to look at him, Neal paused in question.  “What?”

Chuck smiled.  “I never said that you entered through the freezer at the yogurt shop.”

Puzzled, Neal didn’t know how he would know that.  “I was in your secret government base?”

Glancing over at him, Chuck gave him a look.  “Remember… you’re actually an agent.  Of course you have been to the base before.  It even has your pass codes programmed into it as we never took you out.”

When Peter gave him a look of his own, Chuck defended himself.  “What?  He was supposed to be dead and he is an ally if he showed up alive again.”  Chuck shrugged because he wasn’t worried about what Bryce might do.

Falling silent in the back seat, Neal seemed to be surprised.  “Apparently, I seem to keep recognizing places and the instinct to protect you, but I don’t actually remember a thing.  Have you come up with any theories Chuck?”

Snorting, Chuck replied.  “Let’s just say that I have seen too much science fiction.  Most of my ideas aren’t possible beyond the realm of television, so they aren’t worth sharing.  However, there might be a few ideas that have some validity.”

“What ideas?”  Peter questioned.

With a shrug Chuck threw a few out for them to contemplate.  “Perhaps someone made a variation of an Intersect that went haywire, maybe you were hypnotized, or it’s even possible that people came up with some kind of mind control.”

Skeptical, Peter didn’t seem to think that any of them were realistic.  “And you call those plausible ideas?  It’s more likely that he has something along the lines of a head injury or extreme trauma… as much as I prefer the idea of hypnosis, those seem to be more likely.”  Peter was sticking to things that seemed to be more realistic to him.

Meanwhile in the back seat, Neal had been contemplating Chuck’s theories.  “What is an Intersect?”

Sighing, Chuck knew that was going to come up eventually.  “It’s my father’s third best creation.  Basically, it intersects the human mind with a super computer.”

In a flash of intuition, Neal finally understood a few things.  “That is why it is so important.”

“Why?”  Peter questioned.

Chuck simply sat back to see how much Neal knew.

“Computers store information right?  So, a super computer that can store information while uploading the data to intersect it with a human mind would make the person a carrier for… who knows what.”  Thinking that through a little further, he made the next leap.  “That is also how you fought so well isn’t it, Chuck?  You have an Intersect which ran a fight program.”

“You are on fire there Neal, right on all counts.  What else is still in that brain of yours?”  Chuck was curious.  _Why is he suddenly remembering so much?  Yesterday he couldn’t recognize me, but today he is spouting government secrets?_

_“_ Uh… I don’t know.  It seems like you bring stuff out, but I can’t seem to control it.”  Thinking back over the previous years, he couldn’t remember ever knowing any of this stuff.  “I mean, I didn’t even start thinking that there was anything more until yesterday when we arrived at the Buymore.”

When Chuck looked puzzled, Peter decided to explain.  “After we arrived at the Buymore, Neal made a few comments about it seeming familiar for no explainable reason.  Then he said ‘Why do I feel like this place is special… like there is some huge piece of my life tied into that building?’  Apparently, he recognized your importance in his life before he knew there was anything missing.” 

Chuck felt slightly ashamed.  For years he was so angry at Neal, hated him even, and here Neal felt that he was a huge part of his life before he even remembered him?  Who was the better friend between them?

As Chuck fell quiet, the others followed suit.

*******

Pulling into the mall parking lot, Peter looked around questioningly.  Was the secret base seriously here?  This was the last place that he would have expected to end up.

“The base is beneath a mall parking lot?  Isn’t that endangering civilians?”  He questioned.

“Considering how many unsavory people use the crowds of malls for shopping and getting away from a pursuit, it actually brings an aspect of safety to have a response team close by.”  Neal answered from the back seat.

Peter was skeptical, so Chuck backed the comment with a few quick references to some of his own experiences.  “Granted, there are several situations where our presence here has attracted those unsavory persons, but you would be surprised how many times our presence has also diverted disaster by being here.  A few examples would be when a Buymore employee was targeted for his gaming skills by terrorist trying to get Chinese nuclear codes hidden inside the game in order to nuke California off of the map and start world war three, the Yakuza sent hit men after my friend as his ex was unknowingly dating one of their leaders and he had gotten himself into trouble with them, another would be when we found smugglers importing food for a mall restaurant… that one led to  us finding the not-so-dead-after-all Neal the first time… and that is just naming a few things that have come through the mall.  Besides, when actual danger presents a threat to the customers, we do things like pulling the fire alarm to clear them out while our back up comes in as firefighters so that we can handle the danger while keeping civilians out of harm’s way.”

“Still, why don’t you put the base somewhere further away from civilians?”  Peter was pushing the issue as the idea of a government base hiding beneath a place for families was unsettling to him.  _What if they couldn’t get the civilians out of harm’s way in time?_

“Like stick it miles out of town and hide it under a rock?  I have seen those bases, and although they are harder to find… they usually present more danger as bigger groups attack with more weapons and the defense mechanisms usually cause bigger explosions.  Instead, our base is typically manned by three people with the occasional persons passing through or working around temporarily.  That way we have less of a presence to attract attention, we aren’t where you would expect us to be, and if things go wrong, we are in the back of the parking lot with a customer base small enough that we are able to keep them safe.”  It wasn’t entirely reassuring, but it also hadn’t been Chuck’s choice to place the base there.  The location was mostly just a byproduct of his working there when everything happened.

“I still don’t feel comfortable with the location.”  Peter said.

“Some days, I don’t either, but as it is here, I have had to come up with ways to deal with it.”  Chuck shrugged.

Climbing out of the car, the three men leisurely walked acrossed the lot to the yogurt shop.  Walking in, Chuck smiled as he saw Sarah working behind the counter.

“Hey guys.”  She greeted them.  “I just need a minute to finish this up and then we’ll head down to give you the tour.”

Taking advantage of the break, Chuck grabbed a couple of dishes and asked the others what they wanted.

Neal laughed at him while Peter just shook his head.

Shrugging off their disinterest, Chuck fixed himself a little bit to snack on.

Smiling at him fondly, Sarah invited the others to help themselves as well.  “Go ahead if you want.  We’ll be having a tour and a meeting to begin with so you can eat it while we do that.”

Deciding to give it a try, Peter opted to take a small bowl while Neal decided to try a little bit.  Talking to Chuck, they discussed what flavor was best and which toppings were the most optimal to go with it.

Enjoying their banter, Sarah was content to listen while she completed her work before joining them for a bowl herself.  Then with a smile, she made a bowl for Casey as well.  He wouldn’t particularly care about the treat, but she decided to be nice and include him anyway.

With the food in hand, they decided to test Neal to see if he could remember how to enter the base.

Hesitantly, Neal entered the freezer ahead of them and looked around him until he found the entry pad.  Trying to remember, he had no idea what to key in.  Sure, his eyes were the same for that portion, but he also needed to remember a pass code.  Shrugging, he turned around and looked at the others.  “I have no idea what pass code I would need to put in.”

Patting him on the shoulder reassuringly, Chuck took the lead and entered his codes.  “Don’t worry about it Neal.  We just wanted to see if you could remember now that we’re here.  Why don’t you lead to see if anything down here seems familiar?”

Following along as Neal tried to find his way, while Chuck and Sarah took note of how well he did, Peter simply took in his surroundings.  _I’m going to listen more to Mozzie’s crazy theories in the future…_   He was amazed at how much the government could fit in the base.  As they meandered their way through the subterranean hallways, they went past training rooms, weapons armories, cells, interrogation rooms, and finally to the main central room.  It was full of computers and had a few agents working at them.  Continuing to the other side of the room, they settled in at the conference room table.

*******

Sitting at the conference room table, Chuck was still trying to adjust to having Neal sitting beside him.  After all, the man had been dead twice and was suddenly back in the picture again.  Only this time, Neal had no memory of him… which actually helped make it easier to call him Neal instead of Bryce.

Focusing back on the general, Chuck listened to the updates on what she had discovered on her end.

“Your last report on him showed that he had been shot in the back, died, and his body was drug away by the Ring agents who had raided the facility.  Then we have him showing up as Neal Caffrey with no idea as to his identity or what happened in between.

Since the Ring is our last lead, I have a team pursuing that angle. 

There is a team of scientists waiting in the back room to work with Neal.  They will be conducting the tests to see if they can find what was done to remove his memory.

Agent Burke, I would like you to work with Neal to gather as much information as you can about his character of Neal Caffrey.  He was originally contracted to play the role in an effort to catch the rogue agents who are a threat to his family, but that was ended when he was transferred to another operation.  Now, we need to know how much he has been acting based off of his real past, the character, and as a result of what happened in the interim between the parts that we know.

Chuck, I need you and the team to do all three parts.  In addition, I also need you to protect them in case anyone should try to take advantage of Larkin not being himself, and, as his oldest friend, you need to help him remember who he is.  Am I clear?”  When no one had anything more to say, she signed off with her typical abruptness.

For a moment the team sat there looking at the black screen in silence.

 “I’m sorry Chuck.”  Neal started to apologize for how much trouble he was causing when the others all interrupted.

“Don’t!  You. Dare. Say anything, Neal!”  Chuck ground out.  “We are going to do whatever it takes to help you find what happened so that you can be you… which means both Neal Caffrey and Bryce Larkin as you are actually both people!”

“You don’t remember me… but Neal, we were partners and we dated.  Helping you, is only a small part of what we owe you for everything that you have done for us.”  Sarah was adamant in her desire to help him and she wouldn’t take no for an answer.

Putting his hand on Neal’s shoulder from the other side, Peter threw in his part.  “I hope that I have made my point clear enough over the last twenty four hours… if I haven’t made it before.  You are my friend Neal, and, even when I am mad at you, I am still happy to do whatever I can to help you find your past.”  Then he smiled.  “The only things that I have problems with are the crimes.”

Neal smiled slightly at Peter’s jibe before jumping slightly as Casey growled, grunted, and walked away while rolling his eyes.

Responding to the questioning looks without have to see them, Chuck answered the unasked question.  “He would probably be making some demeaning comments right about now, but as he is not allowed to be mean, he is choosing sounds instead of words… which he is more comfortable with anyway.”  Looking up at Neal and Peter he added.  “You’d probably compare that to a mean version of Peter’s ‘cowboy up’ phrase that he likes so much.”

Settling in for several minutes, Peter and Chuck asked Neal questions to get a little more grasp on what he remembered of his story.  Then when Neal had shared as much as possible, Chuck took him back to the scientists.

*******

Shuddering slightly to himself, Peter was still unnerved by a lot of what was going on.  Here he was sitting in a secret underground government base located beneath a mall, his partner had been through something that made him believe that he was a criminal alias when he was actually an agent, and they were working with an agent who seemed to know way too much about him without being told.  Also, instead of going with his partner to help him through the tests that he was to endure, he was being left behind with a computer to research.  There was a lot that he didn’t like about the situation, but as the others hadn’t asked for it either, he decided to keep his distaste to himself.

With a few last words of encouragement, Peter watched as Neal was led away. 

Sighing, he turned back to the conference room table where Sarah helped him get settled in.  They got his laptop plugged in, Sarah got him Neal’s real files, and, combining that with the notes he had from Neal, Peter was all set with a cup of coffee to dig in.

For the first time, he was getting to immerse himself in the truth of his friend… too bad it had to come about this way.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you everyone for reading, reviewing, leaving kudos, following, and choosing to favorite my stories and I :D
> 
> I apologize for my delay in posting, we got back from a weekend trip and my evening hasn't gone as I had originally planned.
> 
> Also, just to let you all know, next Sunday I will be posting as usual, but on Monday I get my oral surgery to remove my wisdom teeth. Since my primary job involves a lot of phone talk time, I have most of the week off to recover which will mean more time off. With that extra free time, I plan on posting one of the those additional posts and working on some serious writing :D


	8. Testing Begins

*******

Sitting at the conference room table, Peter dove into the information with interest.  Chuck and Neal had been sharing details, but these were the files.  He was finally seeing the man behind the enigma that he called friend, and he was dying of curiosity now that he had the answers in front of him.

Proceeding logically, Peter started at the beginning of Neal’s story.  He delved through his family history, real birth certificate, and childhood medical records.  It was fascinating for him to see where Neal came from. 

Apparently, he had a history of honorable law enforcement in his family… until his father turned bad.  Looking to the other side of the tree he found the sources for Neal’s other skills.  His mother’s side was full of creative people who enjoyed things like cooking, engineering, and art.  With a smile, he memorized Neal’s real name and tried to imagine a time when Neal was as small as his birth records detailed.  Skimming through Neal’s medical records, he took some basic mental notes and was relieved to see that Neal was healthy even then.

Continuing along, he came to the records of his father’s betrayal, the subsequent investigations, and the changes in the case that caused Neal to be transferred into wit-sec with his family.

That portion of the files hurt.  It meant that Neal had been betrayed by his own father to a point that his life was put in danger… _Did the man care for his son, or was he more interested in protecting himself?_

Following the story line onto the next stage, he read through the details of how Neal’s life was in the system.  These files detailed Neal’s youth as Daniel Thomas Brooks in St. Louis and Peter paid close attention to this group as these were Neal’s formative years.  Unfortunately, Peter didn’t like what he found.

Based on the records, Neal’s mother suffered from extreme depression.  Although she did have a job, she often missed her shifts because she would lock herself in her bedroom.  During these bouts, she would hardly leave her room, and if she did, it was only for the necessities.  This meant that Neal was left alone to fend for himself…  Further digging into the files showed that Neal learned to forge bus passes to get to school, pool sharking for lunch money, and several other minor felonies to take care of himself. 

Shaking his head, Peter wondered how much time Neal spent alone… maybe that was why he seemed to have such a hard time opening up to people?  These details also answered his questions of how a cop’s son could learn such criminal skills to such a level of mastery.

Looking into how Neal’s early criminal history was handled, Peter checked into CPS records, the Marshals, and the foster system.   There were several investigations into the family by Child Protective Services, but as Neal was in wit-sec, they weren’t allowed to intervene beyond having Neal temporarily placed with an approved foster parent.  The Marshals responded to his activities by having him reprimanded by his foster mom, or they ignored them until he was eighteen due to his reasoning behind committing them.  His foster mom… she was a tough parent.  Peter read about how she raised Neal and that finally finished the puzzled for his developing years.

Neal came from a talented family, was betrayed at a young age, placed into the system where he was often abandoned, he learned crime to take care of himself, and a retired cop placed in protection with him made sure that he had a support system to give him stability. 

Peter was sad to learn that Neal had gone through so much at a young age, but as much as it hurt, he finally understood why Neal was the man he became.

*******

By the time Neal was able to take a break, he was exhausted.

Chuck guided him to one of the training rooms to relax and settled him down on the mats.  “Here Neal, take this.”  He passed him a bottle of water.

“Thanks, do they always grill that hot?”  Neal was sweating from the intensity of the questioning and the physical tests that they had been doing.  “I feel like I have been dangled over the flames for the last few hours.”

“It’s not actually that bad Neal.  They are just trying to help you to figure out what happened and the tests are what they need to do that.”  Chuck tried to calm his frustrations.

“I know.  That doesn’t change the fact that they’re grueling all the same.”  He was trying to cool down so he decided to change the subject.  “How has Peter been doing?”

Laughing, Chuck thought about what he had seen the few times he had dropped in to see how the agent was progressing.

“What?  What is so funny?”  Neal wanted to know.

“Peter… I think he is having the time of his life.”  Chuck tried to calm down so that he could explain.

“Reading files is having the time of his life?”  Neal questioned.

“No, finally getting to know who you are.”  He let that set in for a moment.  “Every time I have checked on him, he is buried in the files and seems to be trying to memorize who you are.  It’s like he finally has the key to his most interesting puzzle.”  Even though Chuck had managed to stop laughing, he couldn’t stop smiling. 

Chuckling tiredly, Neal could see the humor.  “I bet.  He has been curious for as long as I can remember.”  Reflecting for a moment, he threw out another question.  “Does he have that intense expression where a tornado could whip through and he wouldn’t notice?”

“Does it count that I shot him with a few Nerf darts and he didn’t even flinch?”  That was part of what made it so funny for Chuck.  His prankster side couldn’t help but test Peter’s focus.

Switching to laughing softly, Neal could picture that focus.  “He must really be in the zone…”  Suddenly he worried about what Peter was reading.

“Don’t worry about it Neal.  Your files are full of the wit-sec past that you remember, school, and government work.”  When Neal still looked like he wasn’t sure, he decided to add a few more details.  “Neal, you worked very hard to accomplish multiple degrees at the same time in addition to juggling your track schedule during school.  Then when you went into government, you pretty much did nothing but heroics… Trust me Neal, you have nothing to be ashamed of in your past.”

“Still, it is weird to have someone reading through my past when I can’t even remember all of it myself.”  He was relieved to know that it was Peter going through those files for him, he trusted Peter, really, he did, but he still felt exposed to have Peter knowing more about him than he did himself.

Since there was no way to fully relieve the discomfort that Neal was experiencing until he knew the information for himself, Chuck chose to distract him by bringing up more stories of the store above them.  The conversation proved as an adequate distraction and gave Neal a means of taking a break from his missing memory while also filling him in on Chuck’s experiences that he had missed.

All too soon, it was time for Neal to go back as his break was over. 

Guiding him along, Chuck worked to encourage him and when he dropped him off with the scientists again, Neal had a determined expression on his face.  Relieved to see that Neal was going to keep going, he decided to go back and see if Peter needed another cup of coffee yet.

*******

When Peter finished going through Neal’s childhood, he came upon the transition point. 

On Neal’s eighteenth birthday, his foster mom was given permission to tell him the truth and present him with his choices.  Arranging for a private birthday party, she sat Neal down and told him his real history.  He was the son of a dirty cop, his name was actually Neal, she was his father’s partner and arresting officer, and in essence, she toppled the house of cards that his young life had revolved around.

In response, Neal bolted out the door and went for a long run meandering through the neighborhood before he fell into an exhausted heap on a park bench.  Working through the worst of his emotions on his own, he calmed down before he was found by a passing police officer who was out on patrol.  Thinking that he was a teen runaway, the officer insisted on taking him back home so he gave Neal a ride.  The kid was calmer, but he was still too tired to make it back home on his own so he went along with the officer willingly.

Arriving back with his ‘aunt,’ Neal sat down and talked to her more calmly.  They discussed his options and Neal chose to go to college as a new path for his life.

Relieved, Peter was glad to learn that Neal could be rational, that he didn’t always run away to do something stupid as his Caffrey character portrayed.  Taking note of his need to run and work through his emotions alone, Peter wanted to keep that in mind as it was likely to come up at some point.

In response to Neal’s choice, the Marshals created his new identity and provided the means for Neal to achieve his goal.  With a new identity, Neal was off and running into the world.

*******

After a few more grueling hours of testing, Neal was given another break. 

The doctors were working to analyze their latest test results to determine their next course of action.  While they did that, Neal wasn’t going to be needed for several minutes so he was allowed to wander the base while Chuck monitored him via the security cameras.

It was interesting for Chuck to observe Neal as he meandered around aimlessly.  Neal didn’t specifically know that he was being watched, but he probably suspected it.

As he was relatively alone with his thoughts, Neal seemed to be working things through by talking to himself.  He wasn’t making sound loud enough to be picked up by the system, but he was moving his lips with the words on his mind.

Watching him, Chuck wished that he could read lips.  Still, the time that Neal was being given alone gave him the opportunity to work through some things on his own.  Hitting a record button, Chuck saved Neal’s private conversation in case it was needed later.  Then he settled back to continue his vigilance.

Chuck enjoyed his assignment as it was interesting to see Neal with the perspective of a relative outsider.  The man that he was watching wasn’t exactly the person that he had roomed with for four years, or the agent that had seemed to make his life such a mess.   Instead, he was something similar, but different.

Bryce Larkin was always confident, skilled, never showed signs of weakness, and hardly let anyone see past his façade.

Neal Caffrey was unsure of his missing past, skilled, showed his discomfort from time to time, and was letting both Peter and Chuck see glimpses of the man behind the mask.

Apparently, Bryce was a softer man when he was in the role of Neal.  _Was that an effect of having his memory taken away, or was that just something to do with the character?_   Chuck was curious if he would get to find the answer.

Observing Neal’s wanderings, he noticed that he seemed to be wandering from room to room in an effort to find familiarity.

First, Neal wondered into the interrogation room.  With his hand running acrossed the surfaces, he seemed to be visualizing a session.  Maybe he was comparing it to the FBI’s version by thinking through his own interrogation experiences?  After walking it through mentally, he moved on.

Next he found his way into another training room.  This one was lined with sticks and had several mats around to cushion a fall.  He ran his hands over the weapons with a light touch like he had in the interrogation room.  Then he stopped at one, gripped it, and slowly pulled it out like he wasn’t sure he should try what he was going to try.  With slow, nervous moves, he began to play with it.  Swinging it lightly one way, and then another, he got the feel for the balance of the weight.  When it didn’t seem so alien, when he had some confidence of familiarity, he started to get more complicated.  Twirling the staff around with his hands, he enjoyed the fluidity of the motion as it spun to his command.  Picking up the speed he started to give some of the control to the energy by relying on it to keep the stick moving where he wanted it to even when it wasn’t in a position where he could control it, the times between when he had contact.  As the weapon began to come alive there was something of an instinct, he knew how to make it move without even thinking about the commands.  Although he wasn’t doing all of the body movement that went with the moves, he was doing the basics, his body remembered the skill even though his mind didn’t.  After a few moments, he slowed down again before coming to a sudden stop.  These weren’t his weapons, he didn’t know how to use them, and it was only by sheer luck that he hadn’t knocked himself unconscious.  Returning the weapon to its place, he moved on to head for another room.

Finally, his time was up as he walked back into the hall way.  A scientist met him and the testing was on again.  With a sigh, he went back to work.

Taking note of Neal’s skill with the weapon, Chuck wanted to remember it for his reports.  It was just another sign that Bryce was still present in Neal… just where, was the question. 

Breathing deeply, Chuck switched his view to checking on Peter.  Chuckling, he was amused to see the agent’s continued focus on Neal’s files.  As long as those files remained in front of him and his coffee remained full, he didn’t seem to notice anything around him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you everyone for reading, reviewing, leaving kudos, and following :D  
> Tomorrow I have my wisdom teeth removed, but be on the look out for the next chapter to be posted sometime later in the week...probably closer to Thursday.


	9. Lunch Break

*******

Eventually, lunch time rolled around. 

Chuck and Sarah had some appointments to keep so they left the base with the plans to eat their food when they returned, or along the way… depending on how things went.

Their first goal was to wrangle some time with Ellie as she needed to complete her process for signing the confidentiality papers.  Since she was still asleep, Chuck left the papers on the table for her to sign when she woke up.  They were clearly marked and Devon could help her as he had filled them out before.  If she had any further questions, they were getting together in the evening, so they would be dealt with then.

Returning to the mall, they went to the Buymore to get Morgan for his papers.

He was more interested in seeing the secret base though, so they promised to take him down after he had signed everything.

When he had completed the official details, Chuck made sure that the break room was empty before he showed him the secret entrance.

“… So that is why you go to the back ‘for a few minutes’ only to disappear for hours!  It finally makes sense.”  Morgan exclaimed.  He kept looking around in awe and had comments for everything.

Exchanging grins behind his back, Sarah and Chuck smiled at each other as they enjoyed his enthusiasm.  Then Morgan went conspiracy theorist on them, and they found themselves rolling their eyes instead as they sighed. 

Shrugging at Chuck, Sarah refused to help him.  With a ‘he’s your friend’ look, Sarah sat back to enjoy the show as she smiled at Morgan’s questions and Chuck’s responses.

Giving her a look in return for her lack of helpfulness, Chuck handled the conversation as best as he could.  “No Morgan, I don’t know about giant monsters hiding in jungles or caves.  Did aliens actually land at area 51?  If they did, no one told me.  An underground train for transcontinental commutes?  Maybe, I mean the government seems to like building underground, but a private jet seems more likely.”

However, Sarah’s smile vanished when Morgan started to ask her the questions.

“Is Sarah your real name?  Where are you really from?  How did you get into the government?”  He hit her with one personal question after another and was completely oblivious to her growing discomfort.

“Uhh…”  She tried to buy herself time in an effort to come up with answers.  “Well…  No, Sarah isn’t my real name, but it feels more comfortable.  My dad… we moved a lot growing up so I never stayed in one place long.  The director recruited me out of high school, but I didn’t start official training until after I finished school.”

Some of the information was new to Chuck, but he figured that he would get a chance to discuss it later with her in private. 

Meandering through the halls, Chuck did manage to generally enjoy showing his friend around.  For the first time, life was coming together with his family and friends surrounding him and no secrets to keep.  He was going to enjoy it while it lasted.

*******

Coming out of his information haze to the rumbling of his stomach, Peter looked around and realized just how much he hadn’t been paying attention. 

_How much coffee have I drank, and who keeps refilling it?_   The steam rising up off of the full cup after several hours of reading was indicative that someone had been watching out for him. 

Looking down at the floor when his foot landed on something uneven, he couldn’t help but notice the darts littering the space around him.  _Chuck!  And he couldn’t resist shooting me either by the looks of it…_

Amused by the other agent’s interpretation of looking out for visiting agents, he smiled to himself as he got up to look for Neal.

Finding some food waiting on a nearby table, he grabbed the bags allotted to him and Neal before continuing on his search.

Fortunately, he ran into a scientist who was guiding Neal back to the conference room on his way off to get his own lunch. 

Taking advantage of the location, Neal and Peter turned into a nearby training room to eat.  Settling in on the mats, Peter wanted a change of scenery for lunch while Neal simply wanted privacy away from the scientists’ prying eyes.

“How are the tests progressing?” Peter decided to open the conversation.

Shrugging, Neal didn’t know how they were progressing, just how he felt being put through them.  “I have no idea… they just keep throwing another test at me.”  Running a hand through his hair for the stress, he regretted the action, and wiped the sweat on a napkin.  “At this rate I will need another shower and a long sleep when they are finished with me.”

“That bad huh.”  Peter gave him a good look over.  The man looked tired and stressed.  “Hopefully it won’t take much longer and you will have your memories back.”

Changing the subject onto the new line of interest, Neal took off with that comment.  “Speaking of my memories, what have you learned about my past so far?”  It was a diversion from his missing memories as well as a means of discovering what had kept Peter so occupied for the morning.

“What can I say…. I’ve been learning about who you really are.”  He proceeded to tell Neal everything that he had learned from his family history on up to his eighteenth birthday where he discovered the truth about his past.  “From what I have seen, you don’t know how to do normal Neal.”  His voice was full of amusement and pride.  “Give you the normal and you create extraordinary.”

Listening quietly while he ate, Neal absorbed the information and enjoyed confirming that Peter’s research nearly matched his memories.  The only difference to him was that he remembered a past where he kept running… not where he was returned to Ellen.

As he continued to eat, Peter decided to tease Neal with hints of what he anticipated checking out for the afternoon.  “Now I am really looking forward to what I get to learn this afternoon…”

“And what’s that going to be?”  Neal’s curiosity was peaked.

Smiling evilly, Peter had a mischievous expression.  “I get to learn what was really happening when you were leading me around on a wild goose chase to play Caffrey the con!”

Paling a little, Neal had no idea what that would entail.

*******

After leading Morgan back up to the store, Chuck settled in with Sarah to eat their lunch.  “What has your research showed about Neal Caffrey?”  He asked her while they got their food ready.

“It’s been pretty basic really.”  She paused to arrange some of her food so that it was more like a meal in front of her.  “He was brought into a joint operation with the FBI when he was twenty three and he met Agent Burke when he was twenty four.  After their first encounter, a dance began that grew to span the globe.”

“And so began a beautiful friendship.”  Chuck muttered the joke.

Smiling at him, she added her own comment.  “I’m glad he has a friend… and Peter seems to be just the big brother that he needs.”

“Someone to take care of him…  You know, I never realized just how much he likes to take care of other people while not asking for help.  It’s a good thing that Peter has the stubbornness to push his way into his life whether he likes it or not.”  Chuck wished that he had been that friend, but then again, he had needed Neal to push him before he could become the friend that he needed to be.  Now that he was standing on his own two feet… perhaps he could become something of that friend in return for Neal?

Wistful, Sarah also wished that she had been able to support Neal more, but she hadn’t even know his real name… just like he still didn’t know hers.  Sighing into her food, she picked up the history of his character again.  “While he was distracting Peter and the world with his supposed crimes, he was actually running missions on the side.  Like he would become known for having stolen a painting, but really there would be terrorist data being transported in the frame.  He supposedly forged some bonds, which is what the FBI caught his character on, but really, those were bait to catch the real culprits by flashing the stolen goods.  One mission after another, he hid his real actions by making himself look like he was nothing more than a reckless young white collar criminal.”

Chuck just smiled again.  Neal would have had a ball saving the world while fooling everyone into believing that he was some small time criminal.

After a pause to eat a few bites, Sarah picked up sharing the information again.  “When Fulcrum started causing trouble in Neal’s files, he was pulled from playing the con.  That was when he allowed Peter to catch him and went through the justice system to serve his time.  Once the cell bars closed on Neal, Bryce was set loose in Operation Sandwall.”

With another pause, she remembered her perspective of that time.  _And yet I missed it… all of it._   A part of her still couldn’t believe that he had taken Peter on a wild goose chase, been pulling cons with this Mozzie person, working with her, and dating her in a personal relationship all while keeping each portion of his life separate… no one connected all of the details together… no one.

Reaching out to place a hand on her arm, Chuck knew that she was remembering how well Neal had kept his secrets from her.  “He is a pro… there is a reason the director partnered him with you, why he was assigned to play Neal, and why my dad entrusted him with the Intersect.”

Nodding, she picked her report back up with what had been going on since they had last seen him.  “When he showed up in prison, he was pretty well healed, so at least enough time had passed for his injury to be hidden… apparently, even from him.  Then shortly before his sentence was to end, his ex-girlfriend, Kate Moreau, showed up and broke up with him.  Within a month, he had a plan in place and simply walked out the front door of a super max prison…”

Shaking their heads at each other, Sarah and Chuck were both amused.  Of course he would walk right out of super max… this was Bryce Larkin and Neal Caffrey that they were talking about after all.

Continuing for the last stretch of information, Sarah shared the final details.  “Agent Burke caught him, agreed to meet him in a week, and arrested him, again.  They had their meeting as promised, Neal presented his offer of a work release, and Peter left.  It took him the rest of Neal’s sentence to make his decision, but he agreed, released Neal, and their partnership began.”  With a shrug that she wasn’t going to go into each case specifically, she generalized their work.  “Basically, they started tackling any white collar criminal stupid enough to cross their path.”

Impressed, Chuck was relieved to hear that Neal was catching bad guys even when he didn’t remember that it was what he did.  “He always has been a cop… and nothing will ever change that.  Apparently, not even losing his memory.”

“His character even has similarities to who he is.  He is pretty much playing himself without the nerdy agent and with the addition of a charming con artist.”  Thinking through the details of what she had researched and Chuck’s comments about Neal’s behavior, and she honestly believed that this was the closest she had ever seen to Neal being himself.

Settling into the rest of their food, Chuck and Sarah switched to general conversation for the rest of their break before they were going to have to get back to work.

*******

Seeing that Neal was turning pale, Peter decided to let him get a few things off of his chest.  “I don’t intend to be mean Neal.  My comment was just meant to tease you, so I’m sorry if it came off as something more.”

“I know Peter.  What’s annoying me is that I don’t remember my own past.”  Struggling to eat, he looked up at Peter.  “Do you have any idea what it is like to have your friends running around and knowing more about who you are than you do?”

Shifting closer as he reflected on the situation, Peter put his hand on Neal’s shoulder again.  “No, I don’t have a clue what it would be like.”  Squeezing lightly, he apologized again.  “Even though I don’t mean harm, I still shouldn’t tease you about this.  It isn’t a joke or a teasing matter for you to be missing your memory and, as your friend, I really shouldn’t be treating the situation so lightly.  Please forgive me for treating you so badly.”

Shrugging, but not hard enough to dislodge Peter’s hand, Neal accepted the apology.  “There is nothing to forgive as you were simply caught up in the solutions to a puzzle that has been eluding you for years.  But, since it is bothering you, I forgive you Peter.”

Focusing on helping his friend, Peter directed the conversation back to Neal.  _Since he mentioned it…_  “So, tell me what it is like having your friends riffle through your life when you can’t remember it yourself.”

“It’s… it’s like those dreams, the ones where you are standing in front of an entire classroom, or group of people, and you don’t know what is going on, but you are being scrutinized closely by everyone.  Then you look down to see that you aren’t dressed right… either the attire is missing, not covering, or something that would just be embarrassing for some other reason.  Even though the situation might not be bad, there is still that sense of the unknown and a sense of intense nervousness because you don’t know what is being inspected, only that it is being looked into.”  Looking off into the distance unseeingly, he added to the feeling.  “Chuck told me that there was nothing to be embarrassed about, that my history is full of heroics and general life, like school… but because I don’t remember it, a part of me feels like the kid who forgot to put his pants on before going to school only to realize that the attire is missing once I’m in the middle of the school yard.”

“Does it help that it’s Chuck, Sarah, and I who are doing most of the digging?”  Peter hoped that Neal didn’t feel too bad about him going through his files.  How would he be able to complete his task for the afternoon if he felt guilty about it?

“Yeah, it helps.  Instead of being an entire school yard of people, it reduces the audience down to my two closest friends and an ex-girlfriend.  There are still uncomfortable aspects, but it isn’t as bad as it would otherwise be.”  Seeing Peter’s excitement dissipating for his afternoon assignment, he didn’t want to ruin the fun for his friend either.  “I don’t mind you going through the files Peter… it’s not like I can answer all of your questions.  Besides, having you three know, means that I have three people that I can trust watching my back for danger even if I don’t know to be watching for it.”

Silently offering his support, Peter continued to encourage Neal to talk things through.

Turning to him, Neal had a few more things to say as their time was dwindling.  “I know I said this already, but thanks for the support.  This… this whole situation is like some crazy dream that I can’t wake up from, so I really appreciate it.”

“Aw, come on.  It can’t be that bad.  Don’t tell me that they grill you harder than I did for a confession?”  He was trying to make the situation lighter again.

“Okay, I won’t tell you.  But, remember Peter, these guys are talking national security and not just a theft of a painting.  I’ll be happy when this whole mess has been resolved so that life can resume in some sense of normalcy.”

With their time run out, they picked up their trash and prepared to get back to work.  Squeezing Neal’s shoulder one last time, Peter gave him his parting words.  “Remember, this will end and we will be here for you when you need us.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you everyone for reading, reviewing, and leaving kudos :D
> 
> This is one of those promised extra chapters being posted for your viewing pleasure ;) Although I may not post many, I intend to post when I can get available time. With the holidays coming and my primary job recently announcing an official merger, I have no idea what the coming months will hold...
> 
> For those who may be concerned/interested, the surgery went fine. I went to sleep with three wisdom teeth, and woke up with none ;) The surgeon managed to miss the nerve that ran near them, the weird one was only close to an not in my sinuses, and there were no complications. Now I'm simply chilling at home to recover with light work duties for the week until I get to feeling more normal :)


	10. Finding History

***********

Returning to his space, Peter kicked the darts into a pile before transferring them to a random cranny that was handy to hide them in.  _Let’s see if Chuck can find them there…_   Settling back up to the table, he pulled the files closer and started into the next stage of Neal’s history.

Immersing himself into college life, he read about how Neal had taken classes in computer engineering and accounting at Stanford.  The files included copies of his class schedules, grades, and final class rankings.

Interested, Peter paid close attention to the details of his accounting abilities.  Since he had taken the classes himself at a different school, he pictured what Neal might have been like had he been in those classes.  Amused, he pictured a mix of Neal loving the problem solving as he eagerly held his hand up, and his bored doodling lining his class notes from the lectures.  Having discovered a source of common bond, he looked forward to being able to discuss their mutual love of numbers once Neal remembered everything.

Continuing to look into Neal’s activities between classes, he enjoyed learning what Neal had been like in a fraternity and comparing the truth to what he and Neal had hypothetically imagined.

He was relieved to discover that they were wrong in assuming that Neal would be teasing towards the nerds… it turned out that he was one himself!  Peter found the unexpected fact amusing and had a few teasers ready to make up for all of the times that Neal had teased him in the past…

Digging into the other aspects of his life, he found that Neal was also a track star.

_No wonder we could never catch him on foot…_   Sure it wasn’t baseball, but it was a sport, so it made more sense to Peter than his love of art.

The next group of details was composed of things that Chuck had added into the files and depicted their activities as friends.  Reading through those, Peter was regaled with tales of college parties, all night studying, games of Gotcha, and programming sessions.

Thinking back to his own college days, Peter could picture Neal enjoying the fun of competing with his best friend.  It was easy, because he had witnessed it the previous night, or at least a version of it, and he had also experienced an element of it during the best of days when he and Neal had been on the same side of a case.  There was that element of challenge, the feeling of comradery, and the thrill of the game that made ordinary things exciting.

Then everything in the files changed with the appearance of Neal’s betrayal.

Reading through the reports, Peter saw the end of Chuck’s college career, Neal go down for a betrayal, and the happy days of Neal’s life ended.  Suddenly, the pages were filled with details of how he was virtually ostracized by his previous friends, how he went from having a social life to focusing on his classes, and how he went from being a kid in school to a focused agent in training.

Frowning, Peter realized that he had done the same thing to Neal in the recent times.  He had ostracized him and criticized him for something that he hadn’t done…

Looking for better news, he was surprised by the next file that he found.  In anticipation of the Caffrey assignment, the government had funded for Neal to actually get a full education in art.  It worked out that he had no social life for the last year of his public college education because he was studying hard to finish two degrees with the beginnings of a few more.

Amazed, Peter realized that Neal did a very good job at juggling his work in training for the CIA, his classes, and the loss of his best friend all at the same time… _And I though juggling school and work was hard._   Peter mused.

Having enjoyed seeing what it was like when Neal was free to be himself, Peter looked forward to the opportunities to see it again.

*******

After lunch, Chuck went back to work and started searching into why the character of Neal Caffrey had been created in the first place.

Going back to the early days in Neal’s life, he researched into the group of corrupt police and their mob counter parts.

He noticed that it was unknown who all was involved, how many there were, what their long term goals were, and what kind of threat level they presented.  Following through the years, these very same officers climbed the ranks and moved into other avenues until they were in the senate, FBI, Marshals, and several other important positions in the country. 

Comparing them to the Ring, Chuck couldn’t help but wonder if they were connected, or if they were just another corrupt system with an agenda.

The next part of the research depicted an attack on Neal’s family after he had left them, but there weren’t any details attached as to what had occurred. 

Pulling up his computer, Chuck accessed the system and pulled up the files from a different means.  Although there still wasn’t much detail, there was enough to get a picture.  Basically, a Marshal had infiltrated Officer Hill’s protection team and tried to kill her.  Being trained, she managed to get away until an emergency response team came to the rescue.  Shaken by such an incident, the Marshals reached out for help.

In response, an investigation task force was created. 

When operating internationally, the character would complete missions under the guise of committing crimes with allies working to help keep up appearances.  On US soil, he would work on more of a consulting level as the front man while the FBI would chase him around to give him a criminal reputation.  His overall job was to solve as many problems as possible while trying to bring out any of the corruption that he could find.

Since the operation was going to be dangerous, the agencies decided to use Bryce.  He had shown an aptitude for getting the job done, his records proved him trustworthy, he had personal interest as it was his family under attack that started it all, and with a little help, he had the skills required to play such a varied role.

From there, it was simply a matter of the CIA, FBI, Marshals, and Interpol to set their agreement up before setting Neal Caffrey lose on the criminal world.

*******

Lost in the life of Caffrey, Peter eagerly pulled out the next files.  This was the part of Neal’s life where he started coming into the picture and he was eager to see what was really going on.

His first goal was to read through the file details that explained why the Character of Neal Caffrey was created in the first place.

Miffed, he realized that he was simply sent after Neal to make him look good… At least he was credited with being chosen as the pursuing agent because he was trusted not to betray him, he was deemed intelligent enough to compete, and they hoped to advance him in the FBI as he was deemed to have great potential.  Still, as complimentary as their reasoning was for choosing him, he was still chosen to chase a fake criminal which annoyed him.  Why not tell him what was going on if he was so trusted?

Understanding why the character was created, Peter moved on to what the character did.  The cases covered a wide variety of work too.  Neal covered anything from drawing out bond forgers by collecting their product and flashing it as his own work, stealing terrorist diamonds, intercepting stolen data being transferred via the frames of stolen paintings, transferring his own information using his ‘forged’ paintings, and so on.

Amazed again, Peter wondered how he had missed all of it.  _Was I seriously so focused on the shiny conman that I completely missed the agent underneath?_   Thinking back to his surprise in discovering the truth he thought, _Yes, yes I was so focused that I was completely fooled…_   Then another thought occurred to him.  _But, I did see something of the man.  After all, I did notice that he was loyal, his intelligence, his need for family and acceptance, and there was something else there that never made sense to me…_   Continuing to think about how quickly he had adjusted to knowing that Neal was an agent, he decided that maybe he was fooled by his head, but his gut sensed that there was something more.  That had to count for something, right?

Moving on to why Neal allowed him to catch him, he was curious as to what caused the man to simply walk into his trap when he would have known full well what it would cause.  The file held limited details for that part, but Peter learned that Neal’s files had been accessed by the enemy and he was being transferred to another case for a while as a bigger threat had been found.

Shuddering, he read through the details of Neal dying twice, being held captive, and simply disappearing.

_And here I had thought that putting him in prison was bad… that would have been nothing compared to what he was actually going through._   The reports and crime scene photos made Peter fight back his emotions.  Thanks to one particular picture, he could now see exactly what his best friend looked like dead… _Why did they have to include that in these files?_   Hoping to get the image of Neal lying on the ground with a bloody hole next to his heart out of his head, he knew that he would fail and be having nightmares courtesy of Casey.

Closing the files, he knew everything about Neal that the files could detail.  He knew everything about him from his family history, through his childhood, academics, and into work history.  There had even been details telling him that Neal was an officer of the CIA with a level six clearance.

Settling back in his chair, Peter decided to take the rest of his time to think through what he had found.

*******

Interested in the people of Neal’s life, Chuck started looking into the relationships he had associated with his character.

First, there was this person known only as ‘Mozzie.’  Chuck looked into him and there wasn’t much to find.  The man had shown up when Neal had encountered him in the park playing Three Card Monte and had become his working partner which gave him another level of dimension in the criminal persona.  Oddly enough, Mozzie hadn’t been seen since an incident with Vincent Adler at the docks… that was something to be further researched with Neal when he got the chance.

Second, there was a woman named Kate Moreau.  She had the character’s heart wrapped around her little finger, but the agent still had a job to do which caused a rift in their relationship.  Although she had feelings for Neal in return, it looked like she had a secret that she couldn’t share… she was also an undercover agent.  _Did Bryce know that he was falling in love with an undercover agent, or was he as blind as she to their real identities?_   Following their romance, Chuck found that they separated due to Neal’s work, got back together when he was caught, were separated again for her work, and she was killed during her operation to get closer to Adler. 

Then the third main person who came up as a friend from the criminal records was an Alex Hunter.  She was a fence and thief with connections to the Nazis which made her a good contact into the criminal world.  Although there was a brief romance between her and Neal, they were mostly just friends who occasionally worked together.

Looking into the enemies from Neal’s file, the list was rather long, but a few particular ones stood out.

Vincent Adler had of course had been known as the man who swindled New York City and he was considered to be very dangerous.  Fortunately, he was dead and no longer a direct issue.

Ryan Wilkes had made a brief appearance, but his taste for violence and tendency to play dirty made him a special priority to take off of the streets when he started taking civilian hostages.  It didn’t hurt that he had taken Neal prisoner which allowed for an inside perspective into the plans so that Neal was able to initiate the action to take him down.

Matthew Keller had proven to be one of the biggest problems in Neal’s past and might have further cause for concern.  He was considered to be a blue collar version of Neal with a tendency to get his hands dirty with violence, bloodshed, and he wasn’t above using innocents to get his way.  Although the man was in prison for abducting Elizabeth, he wasn’t likely to be gone for good.

Finally, Chuck focused on the current people in Neal’s life.

Of course there were the Burkes.  Although there had been some issues between them and Neal since the treasure incident, they were generally Neal’s support system, safe landing, and the three of them had even become a form of a family.  Peter was Neal’s big brother and father figure when he went boss while Elizabeth played the softer role of big sister and mediator when the men couldn’t understand each other.  They were the anchors who kept Neal taken care of.

At home, Neal had his land lady June Ellington.  She performed an almost motherly role to him in that she made sure he had a roof over his head and provided him with her deceased husband’s old wardrobe for clothing.  He was the company and excitement that she needed as an old widow with such a large mansion all to herself.  His presence made her feel younger and needed, gave her something to do by taking care of him, and his shenanigans reminded her of the old days when her husband had been a con.

On the work front, Neal had a reliable team of skilled agents to back him.  Reese Hughes was a legend who knew how to lead a team and get the job done.  Peter carried his role into being the intelligent boss who watched out for him and kept him out of trouble… as best as he could anyway.  While Agents Clinton Jones and Diana Berrigan provided the support and assistance that was needed to close cases.

Having gone through most of the relationships connected to Neal, Chuck decided to call it a day.

Gathering the team, they headed home, and dropped into bed after a long day with the anticipation of a longer one to come.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you everyone for reading, reviewing, leaving kudos, following, and choosing to favorite :D
> 
> I'm glad to see that people are continuing to enjoy the story, and even though I can't respond to guest reviews, I still enjoy seeing your comments :D
> 
> Returning to work at the end of the week here, I discover that there isn't much about the merger. It is officially started, but won't be finalized until sometime next year. All well, at least the next few months can generally be planned for and the rest will be what it will be later ;)


	11. Morning Recollections

*******

Sitting at the kitchen table, Peter munched on his cereal while he thought about the drive home from the base.  There had been so many things to absorb… and that wasn’t just taking about what he had seen in Neal’s files.

_On the drive home, he had enjoyed a conversation with Chuck and gotten the chance to ask him some questions.  Curious, Peter wanted to know more about the man who was so close to Neal.  Interested in their professional connections, he asked Chuck about his work for the government._

_“I am an agent of the CIA who works in a joint task force with the NSA.  We utilize my father’s super computer to complete missions of national security and work to keep the secrets of it out of enemy hands.  My clearance is a level six and since the director of the CIA was killed in action, I now report to the director of the NSA.”  Chuck was direct and kept to the basics._

_Peter was glad that Chuck was being so open with him so he continued to see what else he could understand.  “Why do you work at the Buymore then?”_

_Laughing, Chuck explained his unusual circumstances. “Because, when Bryce got me involved, that is what I had been doing since he got me expelled.  In order to keep up appearances that nothing had changed, Casey got a job working as a green shirt on the floor while Sarah took up the role of my pretend girlfriend so that I could safely continue to work at the Buymore.  Since we are still trying to keep it secret that I am anything more than a Nerd Herd supervisor, I continue to do my mediocre work.”_

_With the ‘archeologist’ in full form, Peter continued.  “What is Neal’s professional relationship to you?”_

_“He is my boss.”  Chuck answered comfortably._

_“What?”  Peter and Neal both exclaimed._

_Shrugging, Chuck didn’t think it was a big deal.  “Why not?  He has worked for the government for five more years and had four years of experience working with the creator of the computer.  Who wouldn’t put him in a position above me?”_

It seemed that each drive with Chuck provided an option for Neal and Peter to open up doors to new information.  They tended to cover subjects from personal history, professional responsibilities, and the personal relationships connecting them to the people in their lives.

*******

Getting ready for the day, Chuck thought about the drive home the evening before.  It had been amusing to watch as Peter told Neal the details that he had learned through his afternoon of research.

_After Peter had told Neal about his college studies, Neal’s head popped up while Peter smiled._

_“I am a nerdy geek?”  Although it had been mentioned, Neal hadn’t caught it before and he didn’t seem as thrilled by the idea._

_Peter looked a little hurt by Neal referring to him as a geek._

_Reassuring Neal, Chuck explained a little more.  “You chose to do engineering because you like computers and are very good with them.  In the past you were always proud to be a nerd, you even tried to get Klingon placed as an official second language because you are fluent in it.  As for the accounting, that was your fall back in case you needed a second job option while chasing your dreams in game designing.  When others called you a geek for your math skills, you corrected them that you were a nerd and not a geek so they should get it right if they were going to try an insult you.  They usually shut up after that.”_

_Looking over, Neal noticed that Peter wasn’t looking at him and he realized that his outburst had hurt his friend.  Reaching out, he put a hand on Peter’s arm.  “I guess we are both nerds after all Peter.”_

_Turning to Chuck, he asked.  “We were fraternity brothers weren’t we?”_

_Wondering why that was suddenly such a point of interest, Chuck watched him as he answered.   “Yes.”_

_Trying to get a reaction out of Peter, Neal joked.  “I guess we were right that I would be a frat boy in a college environment.”_

_Smiling slightly, Peter accepted the verbal form of reaching out.  “We were wrong though in that you also turned out to be a nerd.”_

_Growing more accustomed to the idea, Neal didn’t react as much.  “What can I say?  I really don’t see myself as one now, but apparently, when I am myself, I have some differences of interest.”_

_Feeling more amused than hurt, Peter started to see that Neal wasn’t insulting him so much as reacting in surprise.  “It must be something like me waking up one day to learn that I am an art aficionado who loves fancy foods.”_

_Laughing at the picture that created, Neal asked.  “Can you imagine the faces of the team if you actually walked in wearing something other than your favorite Brooks and Bros suit while sipping on some fancy coffee and enjoying it?  They would wonder if you had hit your head or something.”_

_Peter commented after turning to look at him.  “I have worn fancy suits and drank your fancy coffee, so why would it be such a surprise?”_

_Settling down, Neal answered.  “Because, you would be enjoying it.  When you went undercover, you did enjoy the coffee as it really was good.  However, you missed your suits and regular life.”_

_Giving Neal the point, Peter gave up the subject._

_*******_

Moving forward through their experiences for the evening, Peter briefly thought through how they had eaten a quiet dinner with the family group before retiring for the night.  Everyone’s minds were busy thinking about something so no one was in the mood to play games or engage in conversation.  Instead, they split up for some quiet relaxation before taking turns to get ready for bed.

_Going to sleep, Peter’s mind had continued to play through the files that he had read, his memories of what had happened with the treasure, and a mix of the thoughts that terrified him._

_He was standing with the painting scrap in an evidence bag.  It had to be Neal’s!  The testing had confirmed that it was a modern day painting, but he didn’t have anything to guarantee that it was Neal’s.  There was also an instinct that something wasn’t right...  As much as he wanted to see justice served on the guilty party, something told him that he hadn’t put the puzzle together yet.  So, until he could understand what was wrong, he would wait to take action._

_Drifting through the scenes, he remembered Neal’s expression when he accused him, the polygraph test in the middle of the night, the hurt look when he took Neal’s tie as a souvenir, and all of the other painful memories._

_Then he found himself sitting in his car and holding the phone while Keller uttered his threats against Elizabeth._

_Skipping time and space again, Peter found himself at home and surveying the damage before Neal arrived._

_After Neal had arrived, he was slamming Neal against the siding of the patio as he told him that they were finished.  With his heart aching, he watched in painful detail as Neal looked betrayed.  His eyes opened wider in pain and then returned to normal in acceptance._

_Breezing through the most painful scenes, he remembered his accusations, Neal’s determined innocence, and the deal they came to in an effort to get Elizabeth back._

_Having experienced it once, he skipped ahead to where he found himself standing in the shadows of a building._

_Neal had lured Keller to the location on the pretense of having the treasure.  He said that he could get Keller to tell him Elizabeth’s location and he was wired for the team to initiate a rescue as soon as her location was known._

_When Keller arrived, there was something different to Neal… he was strong, determined, and he was fearless.  Even when Keller realized that the treasure wasn’t on site and started to beat Neal in an effort to kill him, Neal still didn’t back down._

_Speaking low, Keller told Neal the location of where Elizabeth was being held captive in the belief that it would die with him.  Little did he know, the team was listening and immediately executed her rescue._

_With the purpose of the ruse completed, it was time for Peter to react but, before he could interfere, Keller pulled the gun and shot Neal._

_Peter rushed in and held Keller at gun point to make him drop the weapon before he could fire it again.  Restraining the man, Peter kept his peripheral attention on him as he checked Neal over._

_To his horror, Peter realized that the shot had taken Neal next to the heart.  Distantly, he realized that Neal had changed clothes and gotten younger, but Peter’s mind was focused on the bloody hole in his chest.  Feeling for a pulse, he was dead._

_Waking up in sheer panic, Peter was shaking and covered in sweat.  Moving out to the courtyard, he sat on the fountain edge and held his face in his hands as the tears wet his eyes.  It was just a dream, but the last scene, the part where Neal lay dead with a hole by his heart… that was real and had happened._

Feeling the sorrow hit him again, Peter finished up his breakfast with the guilty thoughts that his dream might have come true if things had gone differently.  And if they had, he never would have learned the truth.  He would have missed out on all of this… learning Neal’s real past, meeting his friends, finally talking everything through with him…  It was too much to lose, so he was relieved that reality hadn’t occurred in that order, that Neal was alive and their friendship still had a chance.

*******

Heading back to his room, Chuck checked if Neal was waking up for the day yet.  Seeing that he was still sleeping soundly, he decided to give him a few more minutes.  While he grabbed the last things for his morning rituals, he remembered some more of the conversations that they had during the drive home as he was still pondering what Neal had said about him.

_Neal actually looked up to him?  That was unexpected._

_“Why not?  There is an innocence about you that is appealing and you have honesty and integrity that makes you safe.  Few people carry those qualities so what’s not to like about that?”  Neal wasn’t afraid to say what he admired in a stranger._

Having finished getting ready, Chuck remembered why Neal was tired as he moved to wake him up.  It wasn’t just the testing that had physically and mentally exhausted him as their conversation on the drive home had also emotionally taken a lot too.

_They had talked extensively through Neal’s history and how it had affected the man that he had become.  As Peter and Chuck delved into the subject, Neal gave the occasional input.  When they reached a point that they had delved a little too deep for comfort, the three men fell silent.  Neal out of embarrassment as he was the one who was being discussed, Peter to take mental notes and reflect, which left Chuck to also fall into quiet reflection about what he had learned._

Leaning over to wake Neal up, Chuck knew that the morning was going to be awkward with all of them awake.  The silence that had started in the car had gone on since then and Peter’s nightmare was only going to make the emotions of the group more awkward. 

As Neal stirred into wakefulness, Chuck went towards the kitchen for breakfast. 

Passing Peter in the hall, he could see the guilt and sorrow in his eyes.  Reaching out to pat him on the shoulder in passing, he didn’t have much to say.

“Those nightmares about what happened to Neal… they are miserable, but they get better with time.  Just remember that he ultimately survived and today is another day to fix your friendship with him.”

Turning slightly, Peter gave him a questioning look.

“I heard you dreaming and saw you in the courtyard, but let you have your privacy.  Being there… the helplessness of watching him die… I had nightmares for a while too. It’s just a part of caring about a person, knowing that once upon a time they died to ensure your safety, and that there is nothing that you can do about that death.”  Chuck acknowledged the situation, but didn’t make a big deal out of it.

Nodding, Peter went to take his turn in the bathroom for getting ready while Chuck continued to the kitchen.  While he grabbed his utensils, Neal made his way in and proceeded to get his breakfast too.

Setting down to eat, Chuck passed the cereal over to Neal for him to help himself.  “Did you sleep well?”

Rubbing the remnants of sleep from his eyes, Neal looked a lot like he had had a good recovery sleep.  “Yeah, I was exhausted after yesterday.”  Yawning, he paused for a moment.  “Hey, what is up with Peter?  Yesterday he was so excited to see my files and this morning he seems rather subdued.”

“Good, today we are going to be finding the results from the tests so it will probably be a long day too.  As for Peter, his mind was mixing what was into what might have been which didn’t make for a restful night’s sleep.”  Starting into his cereal, Chuck let Neal think about what that meant.

Thinking while he poured his cereal, Neal took a moment to figure out what that meant.  “He probably had a nightmare where I died, didn’t he?” 

“It wasn’t my dream.”  That was something along the lines of it based on Peter’s mumbled panic while he slept and his reaction after he woke, but Chuck wasn’t going to discuss it. 

Sinking back into the quiet, they finished getting ready for the day before heading to the base.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you everyone for reading, reviewing, leaving kudos, and choosing to favorite :D
> 
> This week is going to be another odd week for posting.  Next weekend my mom and I are having a girls weekend with my sister and aunt for our birthday (I was my mom's best birthday present ;).  Because of that, I won't be home on Sunday to post as usual, so I'll be posting this Thursday and the following Tuesday with an extra chapter for you all :D


	12. Making Progress

*******

After arriving at the base, the group divided out.  Chuck went to see if the meeting was anywhere near ready, Neal meandered around with nothing to do, and Peter found a secluded place to call his wife.

“Hey hon.” Peter started the conversation.

“What’s wrong?”  Elizabeth picked up on the subdued tone to his voice.

Taking a deep breath, Peter didn’t know what to say. “Nothing… everything.  It was just a dream, but it was the subject that was disturbing.”

Prodding him along, Elizabeth tried to get him to share more information.

“It’s that stupid treasure again!”  He vented a little bit.  “I mean, there is the painting scrap that says Neal did it, but we talked… we finally settled down to talk and Neal didn’t even know the treasure was stolen in the first place.  Then there was that fight with Keller.  The shot went wide and Neal was only grazed slightly, but in my dream… He died El!  I watched him die for a crime that he didn’t commit and now I don’t know what to do about it.”  His emotions were coming out as he talked about the dream.

“Have you tried talking to him?”  She asked the obvious question.

“Not yet.”  It would have to be done, but they needed to actually talk first. 

“Why not?”  She wasn’t going to let him go.

“Because, none of us have really talked yet this morning… yesterday was a long day.”  He shrugged.

“Nothing bad happened, I hope.”  She wanted to be reassured that he was alright

“No, nothing like that.  I was simply given someone’s life story and it was a lot to go through.”

Understanding that the work aspects of the conversation were over, Elizabeth went back to talking about Neal.  “What made him so open?  Neal, I mean…  He has never been open.”

“Yeah, well, the team that we are working with, they are a collection of his old friends so it was inevitable that the truth would come out.”  It was the truth and it would explain the changes in their relationship when they got back.

“So you finally know something of who he really is?”  She was intrigued.

Laughing suddenly, Peter couldn’t help his outburst.  “You could say that.  He doesn’t want me to talk about what I know, but I know a lot about him now.  It’s like I took a long walk through his life and he isn’t such a mystery anymore.”

Relieved, Elizabeth liked to hear that their relationship was getting better.  “You sound happier when you talk about him now.  Was it really that easy?”

Easy?  It wasn’t easy at all.  “No… there has been a lot of uncomfortable talking.  I wouldn’t say that any of it was easy.”

Elizabeth was impressed.  Peter never opened up or talked to people about things deeper than the basics of himself.  So for two men who never talk, it was a huge deal for them to open up to each other.  “That wouldn’t be easy for either of you.”  She acknowledged.  “I’m glad though.  He is your closest friend and you’ve been miserable being on the outs with each other.”

Acknowledging the truth of her statement, he had missed his friend.  “That is certainly a positive out of this whole mess.  I don’t think we will ever get back to where we were… but the hope is to get past that, to a better point.”

Smiling, Elizabeth could hear that Peter was feeling better so she changed the subject to catching him up on their lives.

*******

Talking to Sarah, Chuck placed the files on the conference table while she shared some of her observations.

“He is really good at playing the con artist you know.”  She continued to flip through his file of Neal Caffrey.  “

“Why do you say that?”  Chuck asked.

“Have you read the files on his crime spree, or Peter’s notes on his undercover work?”  Those were the details that had her attention.

“Not really.  I was more focused on other details.  What has your interest?”  He generally asked.

“His skills remind me of what my father taught me and these files are reminiscent to my childhood.”  Digging through for specific notes, she pulled out the one she wanted.  “Take this one for example.  He put together a collection of forged art pieces, led a group of art enthusiasts through, and sold every piece to them by using guilt to persuade them into helping a young art student.  It’s called the ‘Art Student’ scam and he used it to draw out a ring of forgers who weren’t happy to have competition.”

“Did you ever pull a scam like that?”  Chuck was almost done getting things ready for the meeting, but he enjoyed the conversation as it gave him a means of seeing the situation from her perspective.

“Sort of.  We never painted the pieces of course, but my dad did pull one of those scams once.”  She drifted off into the memory.  “It was nearly graduation season so he pretended to be selling them for a bunch of young graduates trying to get a start in the world.”

“That’s why his character of Neal intrigues you so much...”  Her insight into Neal was interesting, especially since she came from a similar background.

“Why do I intrigue you so much?”  Neal asked as he caught part of the conversation.

Sarah was a bit embarrassed as she answered.  She had never told him this part of her life.  “My dad raised me as a con artist, so I have personal experience pulling jobs like these… We even pulled an ‘Art Student’ job when I was a kid.”  Snorting softly, she remembered the role that she had played.  “He even pretended that I was a prodigy responsible for doing some of the simpler ones.”

“Oh.”  Neal was surprised by that revelation.  “Have you ever pulled a Liechtenstein?”

When Chuck snorted this time, Neal gave him a curious look.  “Sorry, yeah.  Even I have pulled a Liechtenstein before.”

Blindsided, Neal needed to know the story behind that.  “Come on, spill.  Why would an agent pull a con?”

“Are you saying that Peter and the team have never pulled a sting that a criminal would describe as pulling a con?”  Chuck directed the conversation.

Shaking his head, Neal didn’t seem as surprised anymore.

“That’s what I thought.  In our case, Sarah’s dad had pulled the beginnings of one so we helped him to finish it before the marks, which happened to be terrorists, could kill him.”

“Hmm, you are full of surprises.”  Neal smiled as he took his seat.

*******

Catching back up to the others, Peter found them having a discussion about pulling cons.  Smiling to himself, he was amused to hear that the local team had been caught up in crazy situations too.

Making his presence known, Peter joined the conversation.  “Did you ever fake symptoms for the suspect coming down with a disease?”  He had an evil grin as he watched the curiosity of the others.

“What did you do to him?”  Chuck asked.

Taking turns telling the story, Peter and Neal smiled evilly as they depicted the tale of their poor victim.  Dissolving into laughter, the group thought the villain had gotten his come-up-ins.

While Chuck and Sarah finished getting things organized, Peter and Neal took their seats for the meeting.

“Are you okay?”  Neal tentatively asked.

Frowning, Peter furrowed his brows as he tried to figure out why Neal would ask him such a question.

“You were subdued this morning and Chuck said something about you having dreams…”  He alluded to the topic of conversation that he was aiming for.

“Oh.  Yeah, I’m fine.”  Peter didn’t want to get into that conversation yet, but judging by the concerned expression on Neal’s face, it was going to happen anyway.

“What was it about?” 

“The treasure, Keller… only it wasn’t a graze.  I saw the picture from when Casey…”  He couldn’t even say it without his mind picturing the scene again.

“Killed me… so you had a dream that I was killed and it upset you.”  Neal could see why he was subdued.

“Upset me?  Neal… you were dead!  And it wasn’t just some dream of what might have happened… at one point, two really, you were actually dead!  Of course it upset me!”  Peter could feel his eyes watering again.  “Don’t you get it Neal?”

Feeling subdued himself, Neal didn’t know how to react to such an emotional outburst from Peter.  “No, I don’t.  Neither you, nor Chuck, have ever died on me before.”

“Remember that case where I was poisoned?  Imagine that I was killed right in front of you and there was nothing that you could do about it… no leaping security in a bound or hacking an elevator to rescue… simply watching me die.”  He rubbed the water out of his eyes before it could overflow.

Expelling air, like from a punch to the gut, Neal realized something of what it felt like for Peter.  “That… that, would be very bad.”  Horrified, Neal didn’t like the idea of Peter dying.  Not even in a hypothetical thought.

Reaching out to put his hand on Neal’s shoulder, Peter comforted both of them.  Himself with the reminder that Neal was alive, and Neal by reminding him that he was okay too.

“I’m sorry, Peter.  That had to be really upsetting.”  He felt bad for his friend.

“Don’t worry about it Neal.”  It wasn’t his fault. 

The more that he thought about the man behind the con, the more Peter was curious of what had caused him to be stuck in his con persona.

*******

With the group assembled, the meeting was ready to begin as soon as Beckman made her appearance. 

When the screen lit up, Beckman got right down to business.  “We have made progress on several levels.”  Shuffling her papers into order, the general started running through the updates.

“First, the tests have proven that Neal was given an Intersect that controls his personality.  It appears to be suppressing Bryce Larkin and running off of Neal Caffrey’s personality.”  Pausing, she looked up at Neal.  “That is why you have been battling between pulling cons and solving crimes.  You are actually an agent stuck in a criminal program.”

Relieved, no one had wanted it to be many of the possibilities that were running through their minds.  At least with an Intersect, it could be removed easily enough with little to no damage.

Taking a deep breath, Neal asked her what was to be expected. 

In an unusual action of humanity, the general took pity on him and softened her stance.  “We are going to remove it of course.  You are an agent and we need you in the field.”  Returning to her more typical stance of a tough leader, she started outlining the plans on how they were to proceed.

Once she had detailed what they were going to do to remove the Intersect and its programming, she continued to explain what they were going to do afterwards.

“After the Intersect has been removed, we are going to use hypnosis to try and see if Neal can remember what was done to him before the Intersect was inserted into his mind.”  With the Intersect related details addressed, she moved on to the rest of the updates before the meeting could be dismissed.

“Our second line of investigation was into how Neal was placed back into prison unobserved.  The research progress has detailed that it was done by an agent of the FBI, but we have not yet been able to track down who is responsible.”

Continuing down the list, she picked up the next one.

“Third, we have discovered what the Ring did to him after dragging him away, but it doesn’t carry through to explain the rest of the situation.”  She was going to try and bypass sharing the rest of the details, but Peter pushed for an answer.

“What did they do to him?”

Glaring at him, the general reluctantly answered.  “He was hauled to an offsite location… and disposed of.”  When the others had a look that her details weren’t enough, she continued.  “They disposed of him at a waste site in the hopes that the trash would disguise his body so that he wouldn’t be found.”

Gasping, the team wasn’t thrilled and understood why she was so reluctant to tell them.  _Disposed of?  Like just another piece of trash?_   The team was horrified and Neal didn’t know how to react to that.

“Someone drug me out… and threw me into a pile of trash?”  Was he that worthless in other people’s eyes?

“Yes.  We don’t know what happened to you after that, but we have people looking into it.”

Thoroughly repulsed, the team wanted to know what was done to Neal more than ever.  Although it wasn’t pleasant, they wanted to solve the puzzle so that they could handle the situation better.

With the next steps arranged, the meeting broke up and the team got ready to remove the Intersect.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you everyone for reading, reviewing, leaving kudos, and choosing to favorite :D
> 
> My next post will be on Tuesday as I previously mentioned.  This weekend is girl's weekend and my mom's and my birthday so I won't be home.


	13. Stepping Back

*******

Getting up, the group moved to reconvene in one of the back rooms.

Looking around, Chuck noticed that the space had been changed for the situation.  Instead of the basic training room that it had been, the weapons were replaced with a chair in the middle of the space.  It was reminiscent to a dentist chair, but it had more restraints to keep Neal still and focused.  Then there was a screen that moved to be placed in front of his face.

Directing Neal, Chuck instructed him to lie down in the chair. 

Behind him, Peter didn’t like the look of the situation. 

Explaining everything that he did, Chuck carefully strapped Neal into the seat by the ankles, legs, hands, arms, chest, and even his head.  Then he made Peter’s gut churn when he placed the clips over his eyelids to keep his eyes from blinking.  With Neal securely strapped into place, Chuck made sure that he was comfortable as he made his final adjustments.

“It’s alright Peter.  These restraints aren’t comfortable, but at least he is in the hands of friends who don’t mean him any harm.”  He had noticed Peter’s discomfort, so he addressed it.

“You’ve experienced them before?”  Peter had to ask while Neal looked questioningly at Chuck as well (with his eyes but not his head).

“Yes.  I was a hostage of the enemy and they used me as a scientific experiment…”  He stated in matter of fact simplicity.

_How could anyone use someone else as a scientific experiment?_ Peter was horrified and exchanged a quick glance with Neal.  Neither of them liked the sounds of what Chuck was put through and it was written all over their faces.

“Don’t worry.  The group was a smaller part of the Ring.  They were trying to create their own Intersect and looking for a subject with the mental capacity to handle it.  Before me, their victims either went crazy or died after it was uploaded.”  With a shrug, he finished how the story went.  “Casey escaped captivity and set off the Intersect which pretty well took them all out… fortunately, no one else has gotten that horrible idea.”

Relieved, despite the picture of death that created, Peter was glad that he wasn’t likely to have to worry about that happening again.  Since Neal was good friends with Chuck, Peter was finding himself drawn to the younger agent as another friend.  With that growing bond, Peter was also finding himself feeling more protective of Chuck too.

Sliding the screen in front of Neal’s face, Chuck instructed him to look at it.  “As the program runs, it will remove the Intersect and knock you unconscious.”

“Then let’s get this over with.”  Neal was ready to have the Intersect out of his brain and the clips off of his eyes.

“Alright, we begin in 3… 2… 1.”  Chuck pushed the button and initiated start up.

Absolutely horrified, Peter stared wide eyed as Neal’s entire body froze and went stiff as a board.  He was startled when Chuck placed a hand on his shoulder, but he couldn’t take his eyes off of Neal.

“He is just reacting to the Intersect being removed.”  Since Peter was generally unresponsive, Chuck continued to keep his hand on his shoulder and waited for the next upsetting part… the part where Neal went unconscious.

Suddenly, Neal went completely limp and his eyes rolled into the back of his head in unconsciousness.

Reacting on instinct, Peter jerked forwards and his body shifted to a slight vibration from stress.

Tightening his hold from comforting, to restraining, Chuck kept Peter from rushing forward before he could remove some of the restraints.  Walking forward with him, he allowed Peter to reach Neal’s side where could reassure himself that Neal was only unconscious.

“Why are you only removing the clips from his eyes?”  Peter wanted to know why Chuck didn’t remove all of the restraints.

“Because, his eyes need to moisten themselves and we don’t know what kind of shape he is going to be in when he comes to.  This way he isn’t going to panic and hurt himself.”  He didn’t know what kind of mental shape Neal would be in… no one had ever had a personality Intersect removed before so it was entirely in the wind what might happen.

*******

While they waited for Neal to regain consciousness, Peter found himself talking to Chuck about the Intersect and his new role.

‘You are technically our new liaison with the FBI.’  Chuck’s words kept running through his mind.  He was now officially an agent of the FBI with a position of representation to two more high powered agencies… way to pile on the pressure.

Pulling a couple chairs, Chuck and Peter sat down to discuss what the position would entail.

“Once we get Neal back to his full self of being both Bryce and Neal, the bosses have decided to give him a variety of tasks to complete.  First, his most important task is to be looking for the people responsible for placing him back into his Neal role in the first place.  Who are they, what are they trying to do, and how did they pulled that off kind of things.  Second, he is going to continue his task of looking for the people involved with the corruption case of thirty years ago.  Since he is technically his father’s son, it is hoped that maybe he will find a way to learn what no one else has been able to… just what all really happened?  Finally, he is going to continue solving whatever case and completing whatever mission is thrown his way… so pretty much picking right back up where he left off, only with you involved to watch his back this time.”

Settling back in the chair, Peter was relieved to know that he was going to be involved with Neal… Bryce, or whoever he turned out to be once he was both men again.  Smiling, _it’s going to be a lot easier keeping up when I know what is going on._

“Will we be working with your team?”  He asked Chuck.  Since Neal trusted them and he was finding himself liking them too, they would be his preferred people to be in contact with.

Smiling as well, Chuck had good news on that front.  “Yes, I will be one of the main people in particular that you will be working with due to my history with Bryce.  My team will be your main assistance too, unless you need backup sooner than we can travel cross country.”

“How about my team, will anyone else be brought in?”  Peter continued to see what would change and who his support would be.

Furrowing his brows, Chuck contemplated that.  “Hmm, that hasn’t really been discussed as of yet.  If anyone is brought in, they won’t be given clearance on the Intersect or your connections to the project.  Your boss already knows that something is going on and you seem to highly trust your agents Jones and Berrigan so they would be the most likely.”  Jotting down some notes while he talked, Chuck had some details to further discuss with the directors.  “I’ll pass it to the committee and we’ll see how it goes.”

“Committee?”  Peter hadn’t heard that yet.

“Yeah, a group of people with Congressional oversight who overlook our activities in the task force.  You didn’t realize that our orders came from that high up, did you?  Basically, the committee and our directors work closely before the directors, or general in our case, pass our orders directly to us.”

“Oh, I figure they were involved at some point, I just didn’t realize that the chain of command was so short.”  That was another piece of new information for Peter…  Technically, he now outranked Hughes and nearly everyone in the New York office by clearance level and how close he was to the top of the food chain.  Sure, he had hoped to reach the Washington level of the FBI at some point, but this was a quicker and less expected means of getting there than he had originally had in mind.

“It’s a lot to take in isn’t it?”  Chuck watched him.  Then he laughed softly.  “Try being a civilian who suddenly finds himself in the middle of a knife fight, high speed chase, gun play, and finally racing off to diffuse a bomb with the latest killer internet porn virus…  Now that is an exciting way to get into government taskforce work.”

Laughing, Peter couldn’t help but comment.  “I’d hate to hear how you became an agent.”  He meant it as a joke, despite how curious he was.

No longer laughing, Chuck shrugged.  “My best friend died again and I took his place to save a lot of lives.”

The conversation grew stagnate after that until there was a stir from acrossed the room.

Moving quickly, both men moved to stand by Neal’s side as he regained consciousness.

Opening his eyes, he looked at Chuck and smiled.  “Hey buddy.  Who is your friend?”

With that one little sentence, Peter’s heart fell into his shoes… _He doesn’t remember me?_ Apparently, he was going to learn what Chuck felt like losing his friend, because Bryce was now looking at him with that same blank expression.

*******

Hearing that Bryce didn’t remember Neal’s best friend… Chuck felt sorry for Peter.  Having just spent the last few days facing that blank expression from his best friend, Chuck could empathize with some of what Peter was feeling.

Instead of addressing that too closely, he thought it would be best to focus on Bryce’s killer headache to ease his pain.  “Here, let me get you some water and something for that headache.”

“What is going on Chuck?”  Bryce looked around confused with a pinched expression of pain on his face.

“First, take the pills and that will help with headache.”  Chuck wasn’t sure how to approach the situation, so he delayed for a few moments.

Not waiting for long, Bryce gave him a look.  “You are being secretive, I’m fully strapped into a chair, and you have a friend that I don’t know with you.  So, come on Chuck, what is going on.”

Taking a deep breath, Chuck looked at him.  “Bryce.  We need to know what you remember before I will know where to begin filling you in.”

“A brief summary?”  In response to Chuck’s nod, he started with a basic run through.  “Okay, I grew up in Connecticut, we met in college, I was recruited to the CIA, ran missions for a few years, and the last thing that I remember was when we talked in the room after your sister’s wedding.”

“That’s a good start.  Does the name Neal Caffrey mean anything to you?”

Blinking at him, Bryce had a blank expression.  “No… the name doesn’t mean anything to me.”

Shaking his head.  Chuck didn’t like the sound of it.  “Well, that means that everything just reversed.”

Puzzled, Bryce had no idea what he meant.

Peter stepped into the conversation for the first time.  “Bryce.  You were placed on an undercover assignment to play Neal Caffrey, a con artist and White Collar criminal.  For three years I chased you around the world, arrested you, and placed you in prison.  During that time, you went through several assignments pertaining to the Intersect before you were killed a second time.  Somehow, we don’t know how, you were placed back in prison with an Intersect to make you a criminal.  We have been partners for years… our latest case brought us here where we encountered Chuck and have been working to figure everything out.”

“So… he is a friend?”  Bryce asked.

Chuck answered as Bryce wouldn’t trust Peter’s answer.  “Yes, and by the way you have been acting around him, he is your other best friend.”

*******

Retreating to regain his emotions, Peter tried to deal with the feeling of loss welling up inside. 

His best friend had completely forgotten him in the previous hour! 

On top of that, he was getting distrustful looks from Bryce as he discussed something with Chuck in Klingon.  Based on the gestures and the tones of the words, they seemed to be arguing about whether or not to trust him.

Unable to pay attention to the gibberish, Peter briefly thought through all of his general memories of Neal… his laugh, that spark of brilliance when he had solved a case, his company, and even that stupid hat trick that was always annoying.  Although Neal might return, he was stuck in a time where his friend was gone with no guarantee of coming back… yet alone the same.

Having completed his conversation with Bryce, Chuck walked up behind him and, despite Bryce’s glares at the back of his head, he proceeded to tell Peter the general summary of their conversation.  Then in a quiet aside, he encouraged Peter.

“He remembers being Bryce… he’ll remember being Neal too.  Just give him time to adjust and remember.”

Nodding at Chuck before he glanced over at Bryce, Peter shared the thought.  “I hope you’re right.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you everyone for reading, reviewing, leaving kudos, following, and choosing to favorite :D
> 
> We had a good weekend checking out another corner of our state from purchasing new foods to hiking trails to a quarky museum.  It was both relaxing to laze around the lodge and tiring to walk around so much, but a good mix for a weekend vacation ;)


	14. Hazy History

*******

After a more thorough questioning, it was determined that Bryce had images, but no real control over the memories of what happened to him after he was taken.  Following orders, Chuck stepped back while Casey stepped forwards to do some form of hypnosis to help Bryce remember what had happened.

Standing back, Chuck watched as the screen was reprogrammed to run a different purpose and as Casey placed it in front of Bryce’s face.

While the questions began, Peter started taking notes, Chuck waited to see if he flashed on anything mentioned, and Sarah had her computer ready should it be needed.

“You’re in the Intersect room and your eyes have closed.  What is the next thing that you see?”  Casey asked.

“A bright light… faces… people are using paddles and medical equipment on me.  They’re bringing me back to life.”  Bryce intoned.

“What is the room around you like?”  The questioning continued.

“It is like a lab… there is medical equipment and technology everywhere.”

“How do they treat you?”  Chuck couldn’t help but ask.

“Like a tool.  I’m important to them for some reason, but they don’t seem to care for me personally.”

Reacting, Chuck winced and closed his eyes.  He could vaguely imagine what type of a room he had been placed in.  Of course there would be differences, but he imagined the cold atmosphere of the Fulcrum base where he was briefly held.  It was also reminiscent to how he had been treated.  The agents didn’t care for him personally, just whether or not their Intersect worked on him.

Focusing back on the conversation, Chuck continued to hear the horrifying details of what Bryce was put through.

In answer to how they treated his injuries, Bryce didn’t have good things to say.  “They removed the bullet and repaired the damage.  Although they used basic medical procedure, they went as lightly on the supplies as they could.  I needed to be alive and functional, but they didn’t want to waste any unnecessary medical supplies on their lab rat.”

Everyone in the room was angered by that. 

Looking around, Chuck saw that Sarah was hiding her tears behind her computer monitor.  Although she was no longer in a relationship with Bryce, she still had a romantic history and friendly feelings towards him.  Peter had briefly closed his eyes in horror at the amount of pain that Bryce must have endured.  The treatment being described was inhumane and Peter’s sense of justice was getting riled up in response.  Even Casey had paused in the questioning to absorb that.  He may have the reputation of a ‘cold school killer,’ but even the colonel had barriers that weren’t to be crossed.

*******

While Bryce continued to talk about the general story of his recovery, Peter miserably listened to him recount the details.

Slowly, Bryce went through the explanations of pain as he recovered from the surgery.  Then he described the minimal care that he received during his recovery.  Once he had generally healed, Bryce started to talk about the details of setting him up for the experiment.

“What kind of room did they take you to?”  Casey continued to throw out questions.

“It was a little room.  They had computers lining the walls, people standing around in lab coats, and a chair in the middle of the room.”  At that point, he proceeded to change his tense for describing the environment.  “I am in a dentist’s chair, only there are restraints holding me in place.  There isn’t a part of me that can move, not even my eyelids as they are clipped into place.”

Freaking out, Peter briefly worried that Neal thought they were the people using him for an experiment.  He was no longer using past tense to describe what had been done to him.  Instead, he had transitioned to describing his current situation. 

Horrified by that realization, Peter threw a panicked look at Chuck and whispered.  “He is describing his current situation!?” 

In response, Chuck cautioned Peter to give Bryce a moment.  They needed to see if he was really crossing the time lines, or if his mind was just catching on to the fact that he was experiencing a similar situation.

Listening again, they heard the rest of Neal’s description.

“Can you describe the people around you?”

Since he didn’t describe anyone familiar, they decided that he was simply referencing the similarities of the circumstances.

Then Bryce reacted to the next scene as it played through his mind in response to Casey’s prompt on the people around him.  “New people entered the room.”

“Why are they important?”  Casey’s interest peaked since Bryce hadn’t particularly reacted to the others.

“One of them knows me, and the other is an agent.  The agency he works with is important for some reason.”

“What agency does he work with and do you recognize him?”  Another agency getting involved was rather worrisome.

“No… all I see is the badge on his belt and he doesn’t sound familiar.  His badge… it’s FBI.”

“Anything about the other person?”  If Bryce could remember who they were, maybe they would have a lead to chase.

“He is crouched in front of me… in my face.  ‘Caffrey… I thought you were in prison?’  The man said.”  Scrunching up his face a little, Bryce seemed to be thinking really hard as he described the person in front of him.

Worried, Peter pulled out a picture of Matthew Keller to confirm with Bryce.  Holding it in front of him, he asked “Is this the man in front of you?”

“Yes.”  Bryce answered.

“Do you remember anything after that?”  They all knew that they were getting down to the end, so they were hoping for any more details.

“A screen was placed in front of my face… I saw a kitten chasing a string… and then I woke up here with Chuck hovering over me.”

With the inquisition completed, Peter watched as Casey brought Bryce out of his hypnosis… or whatever it was that he had done to him.

*******

As they ate lunch at a nearby fast food restaurant, Chuck conversed with Bryce and watched how he kept an eye on Peter curiously.  Drawing Peter into the conversation, he tried to get Bryce to open up to him.

“Hey Peter, what is your favorite story about Bryce when he played Neal Caffrey?”

Startled, Peter felt the pressure knowing that he had Bryce curiously observing him.  “Finding one particular story is the hard part…”  He thought for a few moments.  “Okay, how about the story of how he got the place where he lives?”

“What would be so interesting about that?”  Bryce didn’t understand why that could possibly be a good story.

“To set the stage, you were fresh out of prison and starting out as a CI.  Since it cost seven hundred a month to house you in prison, then that is what you had to work with for housing outside of prison.  In New York, the only place that fits that is a… tiny hotel.  I dropped you off in the evening with the orders to find a wardrobe at the corner thrift shop.”  Smiling at Bryce’s puzzled expression, he paused for a moment.  “That hotel had a separate sign out for the fleas and the people smelled as bad as the alley.”  With Bryce’s face screwing up in displeasure, Peter looked pleased that he understood how bad the place was.  “In the morning, I came back to pick you up only to learn that you had moved.”   Pausing again, he laughed at some part of the memory.  “When I pulled up, you had won the heart of a wealthy widow who had given you the upstairs apartment of her mansion.  To make it worse, the room has a view worth a couple million and she gave you her husband’s Devoir wardrobe to match.  Let’s just say, you are the only person that I know who could settle in for the night at a flea bitten hotel to wake up in a mansion and walking down the stairs dressed like a cartoon in rat pack.”  He was still smiling fondly as he finished the story.

Smirking lightly, Bryce seemed to be amused.  “Did you get mad at me?”

Continuing to smile, Peter answered.  “Somewhat, I made a few comments about things like Cappuccino in the clouds and you looking like a cartoon, but really, I was just worried about you.  If you continued to have such high tastes, how could you keep it up without giving somewhere?  And if you gave, it would probably be in your following the law which would lead to me placing you back in prison for good.”

Puzzled, Bryce questioned that.  “We were friends at that point?”

“No.  I liked you because you weren’t a normal criminal, there was always something different about you in that you seemed to have a heart.  Combine that with you being the smartest person that I know, and I decided to take the risk of releasing you.  We had a foundation that became friendship which is why I didn’t want to send you back to prison, but we weren’t friends yet.”

Beginning to understand that Peter really did care about him, Bryce started to unwind his shoulders and lower his barriers in an effort to get to know this friend.

Watching from the side, Chuck smiled at his success and let them continue to converse.  Listening, he continued to learn more details about Peter and Neal’s relationship. 

*******

Once they returned from their lunch excursion, the team decided to divide and conquer.  Chuck, Sarah, and Casey were going to submit the reports while Peter and Bryce were going to spar.

Curious to see what it would be like, Peter followed Bryce back to another training room with a ring.

Lightly throwing some gear at him, Bryce started another conversation.  “Have we ever sparred before?”

Putting the gear on, Peter answered.  “No, Neal Caffrey supposedly doesn’t know how to fight and abhors violence, so it was never even on the table.”

Smiling in excitement, Bryce threw a grin over his shoulder as he started climbing under the ropes.  “Then this is going to be fun.”

Feeling the infectious excitement, Peter grinned as he moved to climb in as Bryce held the ropes for him.  “It will definitely be a learning experience.”

Taking up their positions, Bryce had a competitive light to his eyes.  “Care to place a bet?”

“What do you have in mind?”  Peter was cautious as he had no idea what Bryce would put forward.

Cocking his head to the side, Bryce observed Peter.  “How about each time you land a hit, you get to ask me a question, and each time I land a hit, the same?”

Bobbing his head, Peter put his hand out to Bryce.  “Deal.”

Bumping his fist against Peter’s, Bryce signaled for the fight to begin.  Moving away from each other and circling, the men moved to see how they were going to best land a hit. 

After a few moments, Bryce bounced forwards to throw a punch at Peter’s side.

Swinging his arm up, Peter deflected the blow into the open air and threw a jab for Bryce’s jaw.

“Good.”  Bryce smiled as he dodged the blow.

“Are you going to change this from a spar to combat lessons?”  Peter asked.

“Why not?  I have more combat training than the FBI tends to teach.  Besides, Chuck can verify that I like to protect my friends.”

Surprised, Peter missed blocking the next blow that Bryce threw his way so it connected.

Since Peter didn’t even bother trying to block the blow, Bryce used his question to ask why. 

“You called me your friend, even though you don’t remember me.  I wasn’t expecting that.”  Peter explained.

Thinking that over, Bryce contemplated why he felt that Peter was his friend, even though he really didn’t remember him.  “I can sense that you are someone that I can trust, you have shown that you do have my best interest in mind, and Chuck trusts you too.”  Shrugging his shoulders he added.  “Although I can’t explain it, it’s like I do remember you and know that you are important in my life.”

Relieved, Peter felt the most peace he had since Neal had returned to being Bryce.  “I’m glad to hear that you remember our friendship in some way.  Hopefully you’ll recover those memories soon.”

Seeing that Peter missed him, Bryce reacted by distracting him with combat training.  “Chuck said that you have seen my files.  Let’s see how you do against some mixed attacks.”

Shifting the focus, they moved to Bryce training Peter in a means of defending himself from a variety of attacks.

When they finished, Bryce led Peter back to a locker room where he changed his shirt for one of Chuck’s t-shirts.  “I used to steal his shirts all the time back in college.”  He winked at Peter.

Unsure of what to think, Peter watched Neal act more casually than he had ever seen him.  _He does know how to wear a normal t-shirt._   Smiling, he decided that Bryce was more personable in some ways than Neal… in his choice of wardrobe at the very least.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you everyone for reading, reviewing, leaving kudos, following, and choosing to favorite :D
> 
> Coming into the new month, I'm going to take a shot at Nanowrimo and an original creation.  I don't know how I'll do at the challenge, but I'm at least going to take a shot at it.  My posting of fanfiction will continue as normal and there probably won't be any more extra chapters for a while as we ramp up into peak season for two of my jobs.


	15. Unknown Element

***********

Rolling his eyes, Chuck couldn’t help but smile to see that Bryce had stolen his t-shirt.  “You’re going to wash that before you leave.”

“Make me…”  Bryce challenged with a grin.

Beaming with excitement, Chuck took the challenge.  “If I can take you down, you have to do all of my laundry.”

“You didn’t lose these bets enough in college?”  Bryce teased.

“I didn’t have an Intersect then.”  Chuck announced.

“Bring it Bartowski…”  Bryce goaded.

Dropping into a predatory stance, Chuck replied.  “You asked for it.”  Then he made a quick move to catch Bryce off guard.

Responding, Bryce dodged him and tried to take advantage of an old weakness that always worked before, tickling.

Having expected that, Chuck shifted to block Bryce’s aim for his weak spot before flipping over Bryce to grab him in a headlock.  A jab to the ribs forced Chuck to release his grip, but he shifted into a wrestling move that took Bryce down.

Slapping the floor after struggling for a few moments, Bryce conceded that he had lost the challenge.  “Alright, you win.  How would like your laundry to be completed?”

“I’ll have to show you as I never actually got to win before.”  Chuck relished his triumph.

Although it was just doing a load or two of laundry, Bryce smiled at Chuck as he enjoyed seeing the first glimpses of their old friendship since college.

Clapping Bryce on the shoulder, Chuck acknowledged what he was thinking.  “You have always been my friend, Bryce.  It just took me some time and understanding to accept the situations that you were put in.”

Taking a deep breath, Bryce seemed to blow out some stress with the air.  “You have no idea how good that is to hear.”

Smiling a little devilishly, Chuck made Bryce nervous.  “Oh, my family also knows and understands what all happened too.”

“What?  They know… about everything?”  Bryce was astonished.

“Yes, they know everything Bryce.  They have talked to you about it over the last few days too, but you don’t remember that…”  He wasn’t sure how the evening was going to go, but knew for certain that it was going to be awkward.

*******

Over dinner, Peter spent a lot of time observing the group around him as most of the conversation pertained to situations that he hadn’t been involved in.

“Why did you come with them, Chuck?  You were a civilian again… out of it all and free to go, so why did you choose to come for me?”  Bryce wanted to know.  It had taken a while for the question to come to mind, but once it had, he couldn’t dislodge it.

Not understanding why it was a question to begin with, Chuck answered with the obvious.  “Because, you’re my friend…  you were in danger, and I’m my father’s son, so I was allowed.”

“So, you went into the middle of a civil war battle, a betrayal, completely unarmed, and carrying nothing but your father’s computer to protect me?  What if they had gotten the drop on you, were you thinking about your own safety?”  Bryce worried.

“You were a rookie when you risked the wrath of the entire US government and military to protect me.  When you agreed to help my father while you were undercover as a traitor, you pretty much guaranteed that you were going to be killed.  At my sister’s wedding you agreed to play bait for an army of killers with nothing but your side arm to protect my entire family.  So, don’t lecture me on my personal safety Bryce Larkin!  It’s not a one way street where you can get yourself killed for me, but I am not allowed to take the slightest risk in an effort to save your life!”  Chuck got a little riled up.

“It’s different for me Chuck… you have a family and people waiting for you at home who rely on you… I have never had that.”  Bryce tried to explain.

“Don’t you dare act like no one cares about you Bryce.”  Ellie proceeded to give him a telling off of her own.

“Although you don’t remember it Bryce, we want to help you and be here for you.  You’re past may not have been full of people willing to support you, but you have a whole list of people in your life now.  Based on what Peter has said, you have your landlady, Peter and his wife, this guy Mozzie, Chuck, and even Ellie and I would be honored if you would consider us as family.”  Devon had his own input to add to the conversation.

“He’s right Bryce.  That’s not even mentioning our team, or other people like Sara, who would be happy to help you.  There is a list of people, some closer to you than others, but we would like to be here for you, so don’t go feeling like you aren’t worth more than your next mission.  We want to see you come back, so always keep that in mind.  If you don’t, I think we can gang up and chain you to a desk somewhere after you come back to life again.”  Peter threw in some teasing threats of his own.  He wanted Bryce to know that he wasn’t going to let him walk away if he could help it.

Blinking at him, Bryce wasn’t used to the usual teasing between them.  “You would seriously chain me to a desk?”

“Threats like throwing you back in jail, or chaining you to a desk, are things that I try to use to get you to behave or be careful.  You’ve never treated them seriously; it’s just the intended meaning that matters.”  Peter explained.

“Like saying that my death would cause too much paperwork as a way of saying that you would miss me?”  Bryce created a comparison that was actually another part of their repertoire.

“Exactly, that is actually our term for that…”  Peter felt awkward saying it for some reason.

Nodding his head, Bryce understood.  “So that is how a con man and FBI agent who become friends communicate.  We basically used our own codes so others saw what they expected, but we had developed that to mean something more… I like it.”  He smiled.

Snorting, Peter was relieved that Bryce understood, even if he had a better means of explaining it than either Neal or he could ever come up with.

Transitioning, the conversation moved to the lighter topic of codes and secret communication until dinner was finished.

*******

After they finished eating, some of the group continued to talk in general conversation, but Morgan decided to initiate a video game play off.

“What?  We can play you and I; against Peter and Bryce.”  He wanted to do something more normal to their evenings, but he also wanted to show Bryce that he was a better partner for Chuck in the gaming world.

Shrugging, Bryce was game.  Turning to Peter, he asked if he would like to play.

“I’d be your handy cap because I have no idea how to play.”  Peter hedged.  Although he wanted to get to know Bryce more, he wasn’t really the gamer type.

Trying to encourage him, Chuck changed the plans for the evening.  “Come on Peter.  Anyone can play Mario Karts and we can play teams with the CPUs.  Although there will be a few extra players on the field, I think the buffer will help to keep the competition from getting too heated.”  _Translation, Morgan will be forced to compete with someone other than just Bryce because the CPUs will attack him at random._

Deciding to take part in the easier game, Peter took his seat while Bryce leaned over to show him the basics of how to play.

Starting the first race, Morgan immediately shoved Peter into the wall before racing after Bryce.

Raising his eyebrow, Bryce wasn’t thrilled by Morgan’s opening strategy.  Getting a banana from the first box, he pulled it behind him before positioning himself to cause Morgan to spin out on it.  “Don’t be mean to Peter just because you don’t like me Morgan.”  He explained.  If Morgan was going to hurt his friend, then he was going to get into trouble.

Willing to leave Peter out of it, Morgan no longer attacked him… that deliberately at least.  Instead, he would only take a shot at Peter if the agent had managed to get in front of him or if he had taken first place, then he was fair game.

Agreeing to Morgan’s second approach to Peter in the game, Bryce left him alone and reacted the same to him.  They all focused on targeting the people closest to them or the person in first place when they happened to get a blue shell.

As the game continued, Chuck noticed that Morgan seemed to be almost tag teaming with Bryce when a player was causing trouble for both of them, but of course he would turn around take Bryce out if he was given the chance.  Still, Chuck saw it as progress, the first signs that Morgan could in fact work with Bryce, if he wanted to.

Once they had played through several rounds of the races and Peter had become generally familiar with each one, Morgan decided that it was time to switch it up.  “Okay Peter, you are now familiar with the vehicles, weaponry, and the purpose behind the game.  Now we are going to introduce you to battle… are we doing coin or balloons?”  He questioned.

“Coins to introduce him, and then you can do balloons if you want to.”  Bryce suggested.

“Alright, both it is.”  Morgan complied.

“What does he mean by battle?”  Peter questioned Bryce to the side.

“Um… I guess it is a video game version of bumper cars and paint ball.  Basically, you run around a course trying to hit or shoot your opponents with the same weapons as before.  Only instead of trying to complete laps, there is a time limit where you try to get the most hits.”  Bryce explained.

“If you run out, does the game simply reset you like it did on the races?”  Peter probed further.

“Sort of, in the balloons you get three balloons and ‘die’ if you lose all of them where the game resets you, but in coins you simply go back to zero and only get reset if you fall off of the course.”

“There are no CPUs this time so, on the count of three… Go!”  Morgan cheered.

Battling around the field, it took Peter a little while to adjust to the change in goals and strategy, but with a little help from Bryce sharing tips, Peter managed to be quite competitive.

“We won that round!”  Bryce insisted on Peter giving him a high five.

Enjoying the comradery, Chuck suggested a baseball game for the next night.  After all, Peter used to play for real and would have an advantage in that sense.

*******

During the night, Peter woke up to the sounds of Bryce muttering and moaning.  As he listened, he realized that the kid was saying his name.  “Peter… Peter…” and muttering something else in between.  Moving closer, he sat on the edge of Bryce’s air mattress and contemplated waking him up. 

Before he could make his decision, Bryce flew up off of the mattress and nearly butted heads with him.  “Peter!”

“Whoa, Bryce.  I’m alright.  What are you dreaming about?”  He tried to get him to talk.  Was Bryce remembering Neal’s memories?

“I don’t entirely remember.  There was something about an accounting job… you in a fancy hotel room… and you died!  It was like I raced to get to you and was too late to do anything…”  Bryce said as he tried to regain his control.

Pulling him into a light hug, Peter reassured Bryce that he was okay and that the situation had turned out alright.  It was also a nice excuse to hug his friend as he hadn’t hugged him since he woke up as Bryce.  “I was undercover as an accountant in a case and the firm put me up in a fancy hotel suite.  When the girlfriend of a murder victim chose to get revenge and I was caught in the middle, you literally jumped every hurtle in your path to save me.  Although I technically died for a moment, you were successful as the medics were able to provide the antidote and revive me quickly… before we even left the scene I was able to inform the original murder that he had made a dying confession to an FBI agent.”

“That dream was vivid and I don’t ever want to see you die again, so please avoid that in the future.”  Bryce pleaded.

“I have a promise with my wife to come home for dinner each night, and it isn’t something that I take lightly.”  Peter reassured him.

Calming down further, Bryce continued to hold onto Peter’s sleeve while breathing deeply.  “Thanks, Peter.”

Rubbing comforting circles on his back, Peter worked to relax Bryce until he was able to settle back and try to sleep some more.  Ruffling his hair before he returned to his own mattress, Peter conveyed his affection for the younger agent.  “Don’t worry Bryce, Chuck and I are both here and safe.  We won’t let anything happen to you either, so get some sleep.”

Settling back down on his mattress, Peter was relieved to hear that Bryce was dreaming about Neal’s old memories.  Perhaps he was in his mind just as much as Chuck had been before?  Uncertain of what would cause Bryce to remember Neal, but relieved to know that he already did on some level, Peter settled back down to sleep with the hope that a new day would bring answers.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you everyone for reading, reviewing, leaving kudos, following, and choosing to favorite :D


	16. Wrapping Up

*******

Stretching, Chuck stared at the ceiling for a moment.  _Bryce is back._ With a smile, he was enthusiastic at the prospect of having his best friend back in his life.

Hearing a sound, he looked over to the mattress where said friend was waking up.  Based on the expression he was wearing, Bryce was the most peaceful and relaxed that he had ever seen him.

“Sleep well, Bryce?”  He started a conversation.

“Yeah, after that nightmare anyway.”  He stretched.  “The upside to the nightmare though, is that it seemed to open the flood gates.  After I dreamt that, my mind flooded through all the memories of being Neal Caffrey.”

Beaming, Chuck scooted over to the edge of his bed where he could really see Bryce.  “So, you fully remember both identities now?”  He asked eagerly.

“He remembers?”  Came a sleepy question from the other side of the room as Peter joined the conversation.

With a pie eating grin of his own, Bryce threw a teasing comment at Peter.  “Admit it Peter, you missed me when I was just Bryce.”

Grumbling with a smile, Peter sat up to see the others.  “Of course I missed you. Who else am I going to send to get me coffee when we get back?”

Pretending to get upset, Bryce teased him for his response.  “What?  I am only an errand boy to you?”

“Ha-ha, you know better than that Neal.”  Peter didn’t rise to the bait.

Continuing to smile, Chuck asked him which name he preferred.

“I am both people, but there will be times where I need to portray one or the other.  However, Neal is my real name and now that you both know that, you might as well use it.”  Neal shrugged.

“You’re absolutely loving this, aren’t you?”  Chuck noticed.

“Why wouldn’t I?  My two closest friends both know who I am and why I have acted the way that I have in the past.  There is no need to keep secrets or pretend to be someone that I am not.  What isn’t there to like about that?”  Neal looked at him like it was obvious.

Chuckling acrossed the room, Peter enjoyed seeing Neal so happy and at ease with them knowing the truth about him.  “That’s good to hear.  It gets tiring trying to keep one step ahead of you, so I’d rather work with you.”

“Huh, like you were so far ahead of me, Peter.  Remember, I was ordered to let you catch me.”  Neal snorted and teased.

“For that, I am going to take a shower first.”  Peter said throwing his pillow at Neal on his way by.

“Oommph.”  Bryce took a direct hit to the face.  “That wasn’t nice agent Burke.  I thought you were supposed to be performing as my role model?”  Neal hollered after him.

“You outrank me.  Why aren’t you being nicer?”  Peter countered before closing the bathroom door.

Laughing, Neal turned to Chuck with a smile.  “I think he is going to have higher standards for me now.”

Snorting himself, Chuck generally agreed.  “I think he had a high standard of hope for you before.  Now he is going to expect you to meet it.”

“Hopefully agent Larkin playing Caffrey the con can.”  Neal didn’t want to let Peter down, but he knew that undercover work got complicated.

“He can.  Peter is going to be involved with agent Larkin as his official partner, so Caffrey doesn’t have to use subterfuge anymore… with him at least.”

Relieved, Neal started getting ready for the day as he bantered with Chuck like they did in their old college days.

*******

Arriving at the morning meeting, they quickly got down to business.

The general ran through her files and detailed everything that had been compiled.  Basically, Bryce was killed in the Intersect room, dumped, something happened to transition him to another group, he was revived, an Intersect was placed in his head to make him Neal Caffrey per Keller’s input, and the unknown FBI agent placed him back in prison.

Then she turned the conversation over to Neal for a few minutes so that he could fill them in on what had happened to place him with Peter as a CI.

Standing to attention, Neal gave his report officially.  “After waking up in the cell as Neal Caffrey again, I had a feeling that something was wrong.  Since Bryce was only suppressed, I assume that my agent instincts remembered that I had been captured, Intersected, and placed back in prison for a purpose by unknown enemies.” 

Transitioning forwards a bit, he picked up the next part.  “When agent Moreau contacted me for assistance because she was in trouble, there was a divide in reasoning.  Neal Caffrey was desperate to help her regardless of danger, and Bryce was being cautious of what might be intended for me.  First, Neal won and made his escape to pursue Kate.  Then Peter captured him, and Bryce managed to make an appearance to arrange their meeting.  Finally, Bryce won in arranging to be a consultant with Peter under his protection while also endeavoring to aid Kate where possible.” 

Wrapping up, Neal described a little of what it had been like to have a version of split personalities.  “There was often a battle between their intents.  For instance, when Fowler appeared to have arranged for Kate’s murder, Neal went on a rampage using some of Bryce skills to attempt murder, while Bryce was willing to submit to Peter’s words as there wasn’t sure proof of the agent’s guilt… However, if Bryce would have had more evidence, who knows how that might have turned out.”  He admitted.

No longer needed to report, Neal began to draw while the general continued to summarize the situation.

Peter listened as the general relayed reports about the Intersect being designed to create the perfect criminal, most likely to complete some crime, but that it hadn’t been successful in retaining control of the subject.  That lack of control was a fact made obvious because Neal had taken dominant control pulling crimes, but Bryce had been battling in the background to keep him in the safety of the FBI pursuing justice.

Watching Neal’s progress, Peter observed his inner nerd mingling with his artistic side as alien worlds became the scenes of epic battles between Jedi and Sith.  As the competitors took shape, Peter noticed that various warriors resembled people.  The Yoda like figure that seemed to be in command was oddly similar to the general and one of the lead Sith resembled Keller.  Smirking, Peter continued to look through for his caricature.  Finding Neal as the lead fighter on the field, he couldn’t help but notice that he had portrayed himself as Han Solo, the good guy criminal.  Looking to either side, he found Chuck and himself flanking his position.  Peter noticed that he was depicted as Chewbaca, the loyal best friend always watching his back, while Chuck was depicted as Luke, the little brother and other best friend who inspired him.  Since the drawing was on a blank sheet, Peter hoped that Neal would keep it when he finished, if he didn’t, Peter would try to make sure he saved it.  Neal was depicting his new life in a drawing and Peter wanted it kept as a mile marker for their progress.

As the general wrapped up the meeting, she made an announcement.  “The team is finished here.  With the Intersect removed, Bryce is once more himself and able to continue with his work.  Therefore, Peter, Neal, and Chuck will get their things together to travel to New York.  Your flight is in two hours and your missions are to solve the rest of the case pertaining to what the Intersect is intended for, and to track down the stolen Nazi treasure.”

With the meeting adjourned, the general signed off and Neal turned to Peter.  Sliding the transformed blank piece of paper over, Neal gave him the completed picture.  “Keep it.”

Smiling, Peter was grateful.  “Thanks, Neal.”

“You’re not offended that I depicted you as Chewbaca?”  He smirked playfully.

“No, you depicted me as Solo’s oldest and most loyal friend… even if I’m a big ball of fur.”  Peter laughed slightly.

Peaking over his shoulder, Chuck quoted.  “’Laugh it up fuzz ball.’”

Ruffling his hair, Peter smiled at Chuck’s retreat.  “How about you drive us back to your place so that we can get packed?”

Waving the keys, Chuck continued.  “My star ship awaits.”

*******

Back at the apartment, Morgan had insisted on tagging along so he was meandering around and talking to people while they collected their belongings.

Peter and Neal were done first as they had their belongings collected already.  With that finished, they picked up their sleeping arrangements and got out of Chuck’s way so that he could pack.

Living up to his agreement, Neal got saddled with doing Chuck’s laundry while he waited for him to finish packing.  Since Neal didn’t know how to do it, Chuck sent Morgan along to show him as he wasn’t doing anything besides dodging work.

When Chuck finished, he worked with Peter to load their belongings before tracking Neal down as it was nearly time to go.  Approaching the laundry room of the apartment complex, they overheard him and Morgan talking so the two agents eavesdropped.

“I still don’t like you Neal, and I probably never will.  Chuck was my best friend and you moved in to take him away.  Then when the situation changed, you betrayed him, forced him into danger, and messed with him even though you knew he was falling for Sarah.”  He told Neal just how much he didn’t like him and all of the reasons why.

“That is understandable.”  Neal didn’t even question it.  He knew that Morgan had a strong sense of loyalty with his own ideas of what that meant.

“On the other hand, you betrayed Chuck to save him, didn’t actually cheat with his girl, you gave him the chance to be a really awesome agent, and you intended to have his best interests in mind.”  Morgan’s words almost sounded like forgiveness and seemed to throw Neal.

“Excuse me?  I thought you were going to hate me for life?”  Neal questioned.

Peaking around the corner, Chuck and Peter observed Morgan holding his hand out to Neal.

“My point is, you are Chuck’s other best friend so I have a deal for you.  If you stick to the East coast and don’t mess with Chuck’s life, I’ll stick to the West coast and at least tolerate you when you visit.  Deal?”

Figuring that it was the best he was going to get, Neal accepted the hand shake.  “Deal.  I never intended to mess with Chuck’s life in the first place, but he knows about everything now, so there isn’t presently anything to worry about.”

“Should you ever mess with him, just know that this will only happen once.”  Morgan warned.

“Nothing short of a last resort would lead me to do anything like that to him, ever.”  Bryce promised.

Ducking back around the corner, Chuck exchanged a look with Peter.  “They have a treaty going on.  Finally!  I’m not going to be stuck between my two best friends.”

Smiling, Peter was also amused.  “I think that is pretty much what Mozzie and I did, made a treaty to have Neal’s best interests in mind.”

*******

Settled in on the plane, Peter was relieved to get the chance to catch up on a few things.  He had a lot of emotions to work through after the last few days.

It had been revealed that Neal wasn’t exactly himself, that he didn’t have anything to do with the treasure, and the truth of his entire past.  Then they had removed the Intersect, Peter had gotten a promotion, and Bryce had opened up his eyes with no memory of him.  Finally, the two people had coalesced into one and they were heading back to New York as a new team with two missions/cases to complete.

Unable to help himself, Peter suddenly voiced his question to Chuck.  “Have you ever thought that you failed him?  I mean, I chased him around the world for three years, threw him in prison for four, and have worked with him for over a year as my partner.  How did I miss that he is an agent, that he didn’t steal the treasure, or any of the other things that he was going through?”

Turning to him in thought, Chuck answered.  “I know what you mean.  After everything that he did to help me, I hated him and blamed him for things that he didn’t do.  There is a part of me that can’t help but think that I failed him not only in protecting him, but in being a good friend towards him.  He is so good at those masks that I didn’t see past them either.”

“Neither of you were supposed to see past those masks as they protect my family and myself from those who mean us harm.”  Smiling at their surprised expressions through the seats, Neal was leaned forward from behind them.  “Despite those masks, you both looked behind as many as possible to eventually see the real me.  In the meanwhile, you worked past your anger, helped me through the Intersect removal, and are both here.  That means that you are going to support me in protecting my family, clearing my name, and discovering whatever twisted intent Keller and his cronies have in mind for me.  So although you weren’t perfect in seeing and understanding everything, your response was to push on and discover the truth before handling it the best that you can.”  As he leaned back, he finished making his point.  “You are the two best friends that I could ask for, so don’t sell yourselves short either.”

Having recovered from their fright, Peter and Chuck relaxed back into their seats.

Smiling at his new friend, Peter knew that Neal was right.  They had done the best that they could, and although it wasn’t perfect, they were still here trying, and that is what mattered.

With a common bond, the two made a silent promise to continue to support Neal and continue their new found friendship based on the common bond created by Neal.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you everyone for reading, reviewing, leaving kudos, following, and choosing to favorite :D


	17. Returning Home

*******

Walking back into the office felt surreal for Peter.  It had been nearly two weeks since he had last stepped foot in the building, and a lot had changed since then.

Smiling to himself, he left Chuck with Neal at his desk as he hurried up to Hughes’ office to begin his report.

Entering his boss’s office, Peter took his seat with a smile.

“I see that things have gone well in Burbank.  Is everything cleared up in regards to Neal?”  Hughes asked.

Laughing, Peter knew that Hughes had no idea just how well things had gone.  “Things went very well.  I now know Neal’s entire life story and have been granted access to any of his future endeavors for the government, which removes the need for him keeping secrets, from me at least.”

Intrigued, Hughes made a comment.  “Unfortunately, I didn’t hear my name in the mix, so I assume that I will have to rely on you to keep him out of trouble?”

Snorting, Peter answered.  “As much as possible anyway.  Neal seems to be even more of a magnet for trouble when he is fully himself.”

Taking a few moments to get serious, Peter switched to the more sobering aspects of Hughes’ earlier question.  “And no, not everything is cleared up in regards to Neal.”  Reminded of the more upsetting part of their return, he updated Hughes on what they had learned in relation to what he had been through. 

When Peter finished, Hughes’ brow was furrowed and he looked upset to discover that any of his team was treated so cruelly.

 “Whoever is responsible for programming him… they used him as a human experiment.  What they did to him, it was beyond wrong, and they are still out there.  Chuck was sent back with us to help discover who was involved with it as there was an FBI agent, possibly in this building, responsible for placing Neal back in prison.  In addition, we are to work on the treasure case.  I’ve been doing an off the books investigation because I feared Neal to be involved, but recent discoveries have shown that he was only the fall guy.  That means that we have a treasure beyond value and a group with nefarious plans both in the wind with an advantageous lead time on us.”

Frowning even deeper, Hughes felt that what had started out as good news, had degraded into some dark places.  “So, that means that you will need to work very hard on these cases while also keeping up appearances that nothing has changed.”

“That is going to be the challenge.  Chuck and I thought we would tell the team that the case we got caught up in has traveled back here to New York.  Although Neal and I will be catching up on some of our work loads, we are still working with agent Carmichael to complete the other investigation.  It sticks to the truth, but explains why we will be working with him and not disclosing what we are up to.”  Peter shared the general plan that they had come up with.

“I think that is a good idea.  The team trusts you to be direct with them and that doesn’t change with your new status.”  He smiled knowingly at Peter.  “Which leads me to congratulating you on your new position.  You’ve aspired to DC for as long as I have known you.  It is an honor to still be your boss, even as honorary as the position now is.”

Startled, but pleased.  Peter smiled at him.  “Thanks Hughes, I hope you don’t mind if I ask you for advice from time to time as you have more experience with these multiple agency operations?”

“My door is open any time, Peter.”  Hughes was happy to be his mentor.

*******

Standing in the office below, Chuck smiled at Neal’s desk as he poked around at the items adorning it.  “And what does this hide?”  He asked poking at the bust.

“Nothing.  Not everything has to hide something, some things are purely decoration.  After all, how many pieces of art do you see in this room?”  Neal defended himself.

“So you felt the need to bring you own.”  Chuck teased.  Then he whispered.  “How long will it take for you to find some way to hide something in it now that you are back?”

Rolling his eyes, Neal settled back into his chair while Chuck continued to sit on his desk.  “I think I need to get the feel for my surroundings before I go trying to figure things like that out.”

“Who is your new friend?”  Jones asked as he passed by.

Looking to Neal, Chuck wondered why the agent was treating him so distantly.

“He is still suspicious that I helped steal the treasure.”  Neal told him.  Then turning between the two agents, Neal introduced them.  “Jones, meet my old school friend, agent Carmichael.  Chuck, meet agent Clinton Jones.  He is our resident ex-military and rather the strong silent type similar to your agent Casey, although less trigger happy.”

Snorting, Jones seemed to be amused by the comparison.  “Agent Casey?”

Filling him in, Chuck shared more information.  “Agent Casey is a member of my team back in Burbank.  Although he and Neal haven’t exactly gotten along in the past, it is still a compliment that he compares you to him.  The man is a military and government legend.”

“Who do I compare to?”  Diana approached the group and used that as her in.

Laughing, Chuck and Neal turned to each other and simultaneously answered.  “Sarah!”

Turning back to the new agent, Chuck explained their choice.  “Sarah is my girlfriend and Neal’s ex.  Agent Walker is… well, she is beautiful, intelligent, but not an agent to tangle with.”

Regaining his composure, Neal introduced them.  “Diana, this is Charles Carmichael, an old school friend and the task force agent we are currently working with.  Chuck, this is Diana Berrigan, our brilliant agent with ties to the delegates of DC.  She is like Sarah with a knack for getting the job done.”

“And I suppose Hughes is like the general, the leader who oversees the work and has a bark for his team, but a bite for anyone dumb enough to try and harm his team?”

Nodding their heads, the other three all agreed.

“What were you talking about in reference to the treasure Neal?”  Diana redirected the conversation with the demand.

“She doesn’t mess around does she?”  Chuck questioned.

“No, she doesn’t.”  Neal answered before turning to Diana.  “Peter and I had a long talk about that while we were away.  Just so you know, I didn’t take it, didn’t know it had been taken, and only discovered that there was proof when Peter told me.  That, by the way, is just one of the reasons why Chuck is here.  I was used as the fall guy and we are going to find the person truly responsible.”

Before the other two could question him further, they looked up to see Peter pull a serious double finger point at Neal and Chuck.

“That is our signal to join the meeting.”  Neal explained to Chuck.  In closing to the other two, he told them to check with Peter later since they didn’t believe him.

As they walked away, Chuck commented.  “He is rather imposing standing up there like that, isn’t he?”

“You’re in his playground now, Chuck.  Peter feels a lot more secure here and he is in charge of this team, so he’ll take more of a leadership position.”

“I see why you look up to him so.  He commands respect and tries to be worthy of it.”  Chuck added as they ascended the stairs.

*******

Arranging themselves around Hughes’ desk, the team settled in for the next stage of the meeting. 

Peter focused on presenting the information for the treasure case as that was going to be their front for the team.

“There isn’t a lot of evidence to go on.  Basically, the treasure appeared to blow up, but a scrap of a modern painting survived.  I believe that the painting was done by Neal, but he didn’t know anything about it.  My theory is that someone, who knows Neal, stole his paintings and blew them up in place of the Nazi treasure so that there would be evidence to burn.  Although they didn’t expect anything to survive, if it did, then Neal provided a handy fall guy to distract us while they got away.”

Angry, Peter paused as he realized that their ploy had worked.  He had pursued the Neal lead while ignoring the fact that there was a possibility that he had nothing to do with it.

“Do you have any suspects?”  Hughes got his mind back on track.

“A few.  Alex Hunter is a fence, was present around the time, and her family has been searching for the treasure for generations.  It is possible that Adler was trying to steal the treasure, and passing the blame to someone else who ‘stole it from him.’  However, he obviously didn’t complete his plan if that was the case so where would the treasure have ended up?  Keller has been involved in both of our cases and is always possible.  And of course, there is Mozzie.  I haven’t seen him since the docks where he had the means of tracking the signal for the submarine.  In addition, he had access to Neal’s paintings, he knew that the FBI hadn’t found it, and he knew how Adler thought.  The problem with that is why Mozzie would have left Neal behind.”  Having laid out his theories, he knew that he couldn’t prove any of them.

Nodding, Hughes shifted through them.  “Focus on Mozzie.  He is the best fit for the double cross as he knew Neal and Adler, had access to track the signal, knew about his paintings, and he was familiar with what the FBI was doing.  Keep the others in mind though as they are all possibilities as well.”

Turning to Neal, Hughes addressed him for the first time.  “First, I am glad to hear that you are actually an agent Neal.  Although I haven’t been told much, I understand enough to know it is an honor to have you in our offices.  Please feel free to let me know whenever any of you need anything.  Second, this all looks like you have been betrayed by someone whom we have all seen as a close friend of yours.  I’m very sorry for that.  Finally, do you have anything to add?”

Nodding his head, Neal responded.  “Thanks Hughes.”  With a sigh, he addressed the betrayal.  “Mozzie was a known criminal from the beginning so I’m not entirely surprised.  He has always dreamed of having an island where he could rule as a proverbial king and I assume that he has found that dream.”

Surprised, Peter hadn’t realized that Neal suspected him too.  “Mozzie hasn’t contacted you?”

Looking him in the eyes, Neal finally admitted what had been going on in the back of his mind.  “I haven’t seen him since the docks either.  Although I have reached out to him repeatedly, he has yet to contact me in return.”

“Then why were you contacting him before?  Even on our case, this morning to be precise, you still contacted him.”  Peter pushed.

Shrugging, Neal didn’t exactly have an answer.  “Because Mozzie would expect it of Neal, and as Neal, I didn’t know what else to do.”

*******

Transitioning into a plan of action, Chuck listened as the other agents came up with some ideas.

“I think we should divide and conquer for some of this.  With my radius, I can’t just go walking about checking things out, and it would be suspicious if you accompany me everywhere willingly.  So, I think it is best if the team helps.  For instance, Diana can check out my storage unit.”  Neal proposed.

“Okay, I think breaking up the research is a good idea, but who should search what?”  Hughes questioned.

Raising his hand, Chuck volunteered.  “I think I should research Mozzie’s places.  Since he knows all of you, he would be more suspicious if you knocked on his door, but maybe I could use some line about looking him up per my girlfriend’s father’s suggestion.”

“Sarah’s father is a con artist?”  Neal and Peter questioned.

“Yep, we had a mission where we helped him finish a Lichtenstein before the terrorist could catch up to him.  It was a two for one where we saved his life and defunded terrorism.”  Chuck explained with an amused smirk.

Laughing softly, Hughes picked up their intent again by volunteering.  “I’ll poke around and see what I can find in relation to what agents might be suspects.  Although they might be here, they may have traveled from another office to reduce suspicions.”

“So Diana can check your unit, Chuck is going to pursue Mozzie, Hughes is going to investigate the agent angle, Jones should double check the docks to see if we missed anything, I’ll take contacting Keller to see what else he has to say, and you get to see who comes poking around after you.”  Peter pretty well summarized the situation.

“I’ll accompany you when you visit Keller.”  Neal insisted.  Before Peter could comment, he added.  “I know him better.”

“And you don’t trust him not to hurt me given the chance.”  Peter added his other motive. 

Watching as Peter shook his head, Chuck could fill in his thoughts.  _He is going to have to get used to this protective side of Neal’s._

Breaking in before it could turn into an argument, Chuck distracted Neal by asking for locations and addresses.  “I think I can use some of my father’s techniques to try and narrow down which places are more likely.”

Writing down a lengthy list of places to check, Neal added some details.  “I’ll use some of Orion’s techniques to see what I can find in general.  After all, your dad is a legendary spy so it will hopefully help and give me something to do.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you everyone for reading, reviewing, leaving kudos, and choosing to favorite :D
> 
> Happy Thanksgiving everyone!
> 
> Nanowrimo is going well, and if I'm lucky (not too busy with the holidays) I might be able to finish it next weekend!  Fingers crossed here :D


	18. Conflict

***********

Coming out of the office for a moment, Peter gave Jones and Diana the double finger point.

When they arrived, he made his update brief.

“I know that you have a lot of questions, but I can’t answer them all.  First, Neal did not steal the treasure and we are going to prove it, which is why we need your help.  Second, while we work on that, Neal and I are still working on our task force case with agent Carmichael here.  Finally, our case has us unable to provide full discloser so we will be doing our usual work load as far as the general office is concerned.”  Pausing in his pacing, he broke down the reason why they needed additional help.  “There is a lot more going on than we can talk about, and we are asking you to take us at our words to trust us, but we need further help on this part of the two assignments that we are working on.”

Seeing that Peter was trying to tell them as much as possible, and trusting him not to lead them wrong, both agents agreed to help.

“Who is the prime suspect then?”  Diana asked even though her expression had darkened with suspicion.

“Although there are a number of possibilities, we think Neal has been betrayed again and that we have all been duped… it looks like Mozzie took advantage of us all.”  Peter explained.

“What do you need us to do?”  Jones got right on task.

Doling out responsibilities, Hughes gave them their orders.  “We have divided out the necessary work load.  Jones, we need you to back check the docks and warehouse.  Since we believe Mozzie used the signal to track down the U-Boat while everyone was distracted, use that timeline to try and find evidence that may have been missed.  Diana, Neal has agreed to give you the address for his warehouse of paintings to see if it has been cleared out.  The theory is that Mozzie took advantage of his paintings to create a diversion and leave him as the fall guy if his ploy was discovered.”

Sobered, both agents looked at Neal like they were trying to see how trustworthy he was.  The looks on their faces said that they noticed something different about him.

Noticing their expressions, Neal addressed it.  “I can’t tell you what happened in Burbank, and neither can the others, but let’s just say it was rather freeing.”  Shrugging, he added on to the cryptic comment.  “Peter and Chuck now know my life story from the official resources of several agencies… I don’t have to pretend to be someone that I am not anymore.”

Wrapping up the meeting, Jones left to begin his assignment while Diana stayed behind for Neal to give her the address.  She wanted to make a comment, but didn’t know what to say yet.  Instead, she simply took the address and went to work.

Leaving Hughes’ office as well, Peter stopped the others from heading off to work.  “How about we go grab lunch and then dig in when we get back?”

“Are you thinking what I am thinking?”  Neal smiled at Peter.

Smirking in return, Peter smiled.  “Probably, some good coffee and a sandwich New York style.”

“I could go for that.”  Chuck added as they made their exit.

***********

As they walked to get lunch, Chuck helped Peter to address the treasure situation with Neal.  “So, you have suspected Mozzie ever since you knew that the treasure was stolen?”  He asked.

“Yeah.  Who else had knowledge of the treasure, access to my paintings, and a motive?  The defense that he wouldn’t leave me behind was negated because he hasn’t contacted me since.  In addition, being myself again caused me to remember that he was a criminal all along while I only pretended to be.  If he ever suspected that, he would easily be willing to leave me behind… no matter how much he might like me as a fellow criminal.  He wouldn’t risk having an agent so close to him.”

It was a logical response, but Peter still wanted to make sure that he was okay.  “You don’t seem as upset as I would have expected you to be.  Mozzie has been your closest friend the entire duration of Neal Caffrey, he betrayed you, and you are being a lot more logical about it than Neal would.  Is that a Bryce thing?”

Pausing to work his way through the line of the early lunch people, Neal dropped the conversation for a few minutes.

Once they had made it through and were back to a secluded table, Neal answered.  “It’s an understanding of him that makes it acceptable.  Growing up, he was abandoned as a baby, raised in an orphanage, and eventually adopted.  When that didn’t work, he hit the streets at the age of nine and has raised himself since.  There is only one person that he completely trusts, and I was never him.  He didn’t even tell me his name as surely as I never told him the truth about me.  So, for as close as we appeared, it was a relationship for advantages with each of us gaining a front man to hide ourselves in some means or another.”

“Still, you aren’t even a little upset?”  Chuck added as Peter opened his mouth to do the same.

Shrugging, Neal didn’t acknowledge it much.  “He isn’t one of you two, and my own father betrayed me, so why wouldn’t a con?”  Then he got an afterthought.  “Ironic coming from me, I know.”

Eating their meals, Chuck exchanged a look with Peter as they were reminded of their importance to Neal. 

Getting a look of understanding, Peter realized why Neal wanted to be so protective of him.  “So, that is why you won’t let me see Keller alone?”

Taking a bite of his sandwich, Neal shrugged at him.  “Does it bother you that I don’t want to leave you alone with Keller?”  He asked.

“No, it’s just that I am not used to you getting all protective… usually I am the armed and trained agent while you trust me to generally watch my back.”

Looking abashed, Neal tried to explain.  “It’s not that I don’t trust you, Peter.  Haven’t I made it clear that you are one of the only people I really trust?  Keller though… he is sneaky, underhanded, evil… and we don’t know who he is connected to in order to anticipate what their plans for me, or you, might be.”

“I know you trust me Neal, and I appreciate that you want to have my back in the field.  But this protective side is going to take some getting used to.  We have been partners for a while, but the balance has changed so we will need to find our equilibrium again.”

Settling in to finish their meals, the group changed the subject to discussing the changes that they could expect with the new situation.

*******

Arriving back at the office, Peter was dismayed to see his old mentor hanging around.  “That’s agent Kramer.  He was my mentor at Quantico.  I… I kind of asked him for help in figuring out how to handle the treasure situation.”  He defended himself.  “Hey, I didn’t know about all of the other stuff yet, and I needed an outside perspective to help me make sure I wasn’t missing something because you’re my friend.”

“No, I get it Peter.  You didn’t want to let me get away with committing a crime right under your nose, but you were too close to make a clear judgment call.  Kramer provided you with a means of getting a nonbiased perspective so you asked him up here to help.”  Neal would have done something similar if he was so unsure.

“Well, while you have fun here, I have a whole lot of ‘secret’ places to check out.”  Chuck tried to cut out.

“Petey, it’s good to see you.”  Kramer greeted.

While Peter greeted him in return, he sensed Neal freezing beside him.  “If you don’t mind Phil, I’ll meet you in my office in a minute, after I finish up with my CI and our taskforce friend here.”

“Don’t rush Petey, I don’t mean to be an interruption.”  Kramer bowed out peacefully.

When the other agent had left, Peter and Chuck both turned to Neal with questioning looks.

“That voice… he was the FBI agent when I was a prisoner.”  Neal whispered.

“On it.”  Chuck said.  “I’ll alert Hughes to be investigating that angle.  You two… just, be careful.”  He quietly said the last part before he walked up to Hughes office.

Turning to Neal, Peter gently questioned.  “Are you sure?”

“Minus your name… he greeted one of the doctors the same way.  His tone, the words, everything was the same Peter.”  Neal ground out. 

Coming back from Hughes’ office, Chuck paused to update them.  “Hughes is going to start doing a quiet investigation.  I’ll notify Beckman once I leave the building and start doing my part for researching the treasure.  For now our orders are to continue like we don’t suspect a thing.  Once we can get evidence, we’ll nail him to the wall.”  He promised before patting Neal on the shoulder and leaving.

Taking a deep breath, Peter also tried to regain his composure.  “I’m sorry Neal.  If I had known…”

“Seriously, don’t worry about it, Peter.  At least this way we don’t have to go looking for him.”  Neal was subtly transitioning into agent mode.  The enemy was in front of him, but he had to play nice.

“Let’s go do this then.”  Peter encouraged before leading the way up to his office.

Once they walked in, Peter introduced the two men.  “Phil, this is my CI Neal Caffrey.  Neal, this is my mentor from Quantico, Agent Phillip Kramer…”

“The head of the Bureau’s DC Art Crimes unit.”  Neal finished before extending his hand.

Accepting it, Kramer commented.  “I’d say this moment was inevitable, Mr. Caffrey, given I am who I am, and you are who you are.”

“And I am…?”  Neal tried to get his perspective of him.

“An art expert, excelling in the creation of replicas… of course.”  He alluded to his criminal activities, but there was something more to it. 

Having performed the introduction, Peter came up with an excuse to get Neal out of the room.  “Hey, Neal.  My tie got cut, would you mind trashing this before El finds out?”  He passed him the souvenir piece of tie to dispose of.

Seeing Neal meet his eyes, Peter watched as he was grateful for the tie being trashed, but displeased to be dismissed when a threat was close to Peter.  Angling away from Kramer’s view, Peter signaled the promise that Neal could watch his office like a hawk if he wanted, but to let him see if he could get Kramer to share anything.

Neal turned to leave the office, but turned back with a reason to limit Kramer’s time.  “Don’t forget Peter, we have an appointment to get too this afternoon.”  He alluded to their arranged time to see Keller before continuing back down to his desk.

Settling in for an extended conversation, Peter listened as Kramer told him stories about his CI and ‘once a con, always a con.’

*******

Walking into the second safe house, Chuck couldn’t believe what he saw.  It was like walking into another world in these places.

Sure, Mozzie tended to keep them simplistic so that nothing traced to a specific person, but they still told the tales of his interests.

Pushing the curtain aside, Chuck laughed to himself.  “You have got to be kidding me, he has an entire Zen Garden in this place…?”

Continuing to walk through, he started checking the items in the place.  “How many books does someone with perfect recall need?  Why doesn’t he read them once and move on?”  He complained as he found himself facing an entire shelving unit of books… the second one in this house alone.

Sighing, he settled in to flip through them as quickly as he could.

When that was finished, he checked through a room of assorted odds and ends.  Either they were things that Mozzie had stolen, or they were simply things used to make the space look livid in because they didn’t make much sense otherwise.  After everything had been searched, he almost went to leave, and then he thought of the sand in the middle of the room.

Face palming, he complained some more.  “Of course there is always the chance that he buried something in the sand… why does Neal always have to like having smart people around?” 

Continuing to mutter, he looked for the sieve to clean the sand.  Once he came acrossed it, he decided to start sifting through the garden to see if anything turned up.

Finally, after searching the whole thing, he decided to call Neal with an update.

“Hey, I just finished another place.  You didn’t warn me that Mozz would have so many interesting places to check.”

Hearing his friend laugh through the line, he imagined Neal’s expression as he thought of some things that he might have been doing. 

“I mean it, Neal.  This place has a sand garden… and unless he has some super evil genius hiding place hidden in it, there is nothing in there.  How do I know that?  Because, I just sifted through it just in case.”  He knew that he was whining, but he couldn’t help it.

Laughing harder, Neal didn’t have much sympathy.  “Hey, your dad had me dig through one of his sand trap hiding places once… then he conveniently remembered that he had the evidence he had collected sitting right beside him.  That was my lesson never to annoy your father.”

Growling with light frustration, Chuck didn’t share his humor.

“Keep going Chuck.  If there is anything to be found, I trust you to find it.”  Neal encouraged him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you everyone for reading, reviewing, leaving kudos, and choosing to favorite :D
> 
> I finished Nanowrimo in the wee hours of Thanksgiving and it feels good to have completed the challenge!  A little break to catch up on a few things (including the last week of story updates I'm behind on) and I'll be on to my next project shortly ;)


	19. Results

*******

When the time for their meeting with Keller was approaching, Peter wasn’t surprised to find Neal knocking on his door.  “It’s about time we leave if we are going to make our meeting in time.”

Making the excuse to check in with Hughes, Peter left Neal alone with Kramer for a moment.  A part of him hated doing that, but he knew that there was no danger involved, just a discomfort for Neal as he tried to gauge his opponent.

“How is your research coming along, Hughes?”  He asked.

“Kramer does appear to be a likely suspect as he was in the Burbank area during some of the time that Neal was missing.  However, I haven’t found any sure evidence to prove it.  That is going to be the challenging part, but I’ll keep working on it.  If you and Neal notice anything, let me know as it might help.”

Thinking that through, Peter decided to voice an idea that had been in the back of his mind.  “What if Neal and I were to wear recording devices?  Kramer is more likely to say something to us in private and that would be solid evidence.”

Nodding his head, Hughes thought it over.  “I’ll put that in motion while you’re with Keller.  Did he say anything while you were talking?”

“Nothing substantial, mostly he spent our conversation telling me about a former CI who he had to arrest.  It was all ‘once a con, always a con.’  He also seemed to allude to Neal being unable to do anything more than be a criminal.  Was that bias due to past experience, or because he knows of the programming that Neal was put through, I don’t know for sure.  Neal and he are alone now so I will ask Neal if he has gotten anything from him.”

“Have Blake get Kramer settled in one of the conference rooms and ask Diana to keep an eye on him… he seems to trust her so that can also work to our advantage.”  Hughes dismissed him. 

Following the orders, Peter got Neal away and they went to see Keller.  While he drove, Peter asked Neal if he had gotten Kramer to admit or allude to anything while they were alone.

“Not really.  Mostly, he focused on undermining my relationship with you.  He kept spewing stuff to say that we weren’t actually partners, and that we weren’t really friends… that you were using me to advance your career.  Based on his words, I would assume that I was nothing more than a tool in your belt.”  Neal stared out the window as he recalled the conversation.

“You are my friend Neal, and we are partners… for the taskforce and the FBI for that matter.  Don’t let him get into your head.  If I listened to him, I would believe that you were nothing more than a con.  He is trying to divide and conquer, so we have to remain a unified front against his efforts.”  As he pulled into the prison, he made sure that his point got acrossed.

While they walked in and went through the security checks, Neal assured Peter that although Kramer’s attitude bothered him, he did know better.

Entering Keller’s cell, Peter tried once again to get him to talk about the treasure.  They weren’t going to address the other case quite yet as they didn’t know who he was associated with.  “Would you care to tell me how you knew that the treasure was stolen again?”

Smirking, Keller tried to give the impression of Neal’s guilt.  “I simply followed the obvious trail back to Neal.  After that, I hacked his feed and tried to get him to hand it over.”  Turning his head to Peter, he alluded to Neal’s alleged greed.  “Unfortunately, I over estimated his affection for you and the lovely Mrs. Burke.”

Rolling his eyes, Neal ignored him while Peter was happy to know that truth from Neal’s perspective. 

Trying to make Keller nervous, Peter decided to allude to Neal’s captivity to see if Keller would get nervous.  “For your information, Neal and I have recently been to Burbank for a traveling case… a lot of things came to light while we were there.  It just so happens, that Neal didn’t steal the treasure, so what is your next story?”

Despite his efforts to hide it, Keller flinched when Peter mentioned Burbank and things being discovered.  Still, he covered his tracks admirably.  “What can I say?  Neal is my adversary, so if I couldn’t have the treasure, why not steal his happy little life here?  Maybe he will yet be persuaded to help me acquire it…”  He sneered.

*******

Entering yet another secret hide out, Chuck was glad that he had a background in engineering and surveillance.  Each of the houses had top of the line security so he had to work his way through layers of cameras, traps, and locks before he could even make entry.

Calling Neal again, he had a few more comments to make.  “Did you teach Mozzie my dad’s security precautions?  This guy has some serious tech.”  Having made it through, he started meandering through yet another place while Neal laughed at him again.

“No, Mozzie learned that all on his own as he needed good security to survive… the man pulled a huge con on the Detroit mob before he was ten after all.”

Caught off guard, Chuck was impressed.  “He pulled a con, on the mob, before he was ten?”

“Look up the original story about the Dentist of Detroit sometime.  Others have built off of the legend, but Mozzie was the kid who started it.”

Ending the call with Neal, Chuck had learned to better appreciate Mozzie’s brilliance.  It was misguided, but amazing all the same.

Settling in, he began to dig around the warehouse.  This one had eclectic odds and ends strewn everywhere.  If it was the location hiding the secret to his activities, it would be difficult to find through all of the junk… especially knowing how brilliant his mind was reputed to be.

Shaking a snow globe for New York City, Chuck smiled as he wondered if he had inscribed a secret message on the buildings.  Then turning to more realistic options, he checked the bottom to see if it had a secret compartment or if it played something.  Striking out, he moved to the next random item on the shelves.

One by one, he continued to fiddle with items in the hopes of accidently discovering a secret compartment with a message.

Eventually, he flopped his head down on the table in frustration.  _At this rate, this is going to take forever.  That is if I even manage to find something, because I don’t even know what to look for, or if there is anything to find._

Jolted from his thoughts by a sound, he wondered if maybe the table had some kind of secret compartment that he had rattled open.

Poking around, he found a latch.  Shifting it, he heard another sound as a lock released.  Continuing to feel his way around the table, he found a panel that moved.  Opening it up, he sneezed from the dust as he started shifting the contents around.

Pulling out a pile of papers stored in folders, he settled down to the table to check them out.

*******

Driving back from the prison, Neal asked Peter what he had been planning by alluding to their knowledge of something having happened in Burbank.

“I wanted him to do exactly what he did, react.  Did you see the way he flinched?  Although I didn’t say that we knew about your captivity, it might lead him to tipping off his accomplices.”  Looking over at Neal, he further explained.  “Maybe we can get a better feel for what we are dealing with based on who else reacts.”

“Or maybe they will all go into hiding for fear of retribution?”  Neal countered.

“As far as they know, we simply talked and I learned your side of the story.  What if I am just a sucker being taken in by your criminal programming?”  He sparred in return.

“Touché.”  Neal acknowledged.  “I guess we will have to wait and see if your ploy works.”

Arriving at the office, Neal had his call with Chuck while they walked up to the office.

Still smiling when they entered the office, Neal and Peter met Hughes for their recording devices.  Then when Kramer requested to see them in his conference room, Neal switched to a more fake expression.

Entering the room, Peter asked Kramer what he had in mind.

 “I intend to persuade you to transfer Neal to my care.  It is only a matter of time before he is proven guilty and you are forced to cuff a former friend.”  Kramer was blunt.

“So, you’re saying that he is programmed to be a criminal and nothing better can be expected of him?”  Peter questioned.

“Yes.  There is no way that he won’t hurt you.  Let me take him to DC and I’ll make sure that his skills are put to good use.”

“Doing what?”  Neal asked.

“You’ll see.”  Kramer had a cruel glint to his eyes as he refused to specify.

“Now, wait a minute.  You can’t take him and drag him off to DC, Kramer.  He is my CI and we have a good record here.”  Peter tried to offer reasons to deter Kramer.

“Contracts are simply details.  He hasn’t stayed out of trouble under your care, so I will show you how to use his criminal abilities correctly.”

“To do what?”  Neal asked again.  “Criminal skills are best utilized to commit crimes… are you saying something Kramer?”

“You said that Neal, I simply intend to use your skills to the best of my ability.”

Exchanging looks, Peter and Neal verified their assumption that Neal was to be used as the patsy for a crime.

Turning back to Kramer, Peter broached the topic of Neal’s captivity again.  “Should you manage to get your way, how are you going to ‘use his skills correctly?’”  He quoted the idea of his comments.

“By forcing him to behave the way that I want him too.  There are ways to program people… such as Neuro-linguistic Programming, for example.”  Although he utilized an accepted means of programming, his body language and tone spoke volumes in another direction.

Certain of their theory, Peter and Neal both knew that Kramer was visiting to check up on the Intersect and steal Neal away to DC.  So far, they had only gathered his intentions there to be using Neal as a patsy for something his organization had planned.

*******

Reading through the papers, Chuck found himself being regaled with conspiracies of a wide variety.  If he wasn’t being regaled by tales of underground facilities, he was being walked through the ‘truth’ of the Kennedy assassination.

Although he knew that some had credibility, like the underground facilities hidden in plain sight, he wasn’t so sure what to think on some of the others. 

His work with the government had taught him one thing though, ‘ _Don’t think that you know everything or that anything is impossible… if you do, you just might be surprised to be proven wrong.’_   It was a lesson that had been repeated time and again for him.

Tossing the puzzling theories to the back of his mind, he continued to see what else the files would have in store.

Laughing out loud, he startled himself with the sudden noise before looking back at the pages in front of him.  Reading through the information, he had discovered Neal and Mozzie’s past time… a series of hypothetical crimes ranging through anything from stealing the confidential reports of Mozzie’s obvious choosing, to replacing everything in the Louvre with fakes.  Obviously they were never going to achieve these crimes for real, but it was clear that they had taken great care in trying to solve how to achieve the tasks if they ever decided to try.

Reading at his leisure, Chuck tried to make sure that he wasn’t missing anything.  Who knew what kinds of codes Mozzie might have left any messages in, so he was trying to make sure he didn’t miss anything that might trigger a flash.

When he did finally discover something, it turned out to be rather obvious.  Mozzie didn’t try to hide what he had, he simply left a letter of explanation followed by what appeared to be evidence.

Slowing down, Chuck paid close attention to what he had found.

“Neal,

It is my deepest regret to inform you that you have been used.  Although you won’t believe me due to their invasive programming, I feel that it is necessary to forewarn you before it is too late.

As for myself, there are things that connect to what transpired which lead me to avoid the risk of giving you this in person.  Should you manage to escape your overlords long enough, I can only hope that this evidence should fall into your hands.

Enclosed, is the proof that you need to verify what I am alluding to.  How you choose to proceed after reading this, is entirely up to you.

Your friend,

Mozzie”

Having read through the note, Chuck knew that he had found what they needed to crack this portion of the case.  Collecting it together for transportation, he contacted Peter to arrange a meeting in the morning where they could all go through the evidence as a unified team.  Until then, it had been a long day.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you everyone for reading, reviewing/commenting, leaving kudos, following, and choosing to favorite both my stories and I :D  
> Just to let you know, my schedule is going to remain just as busy as it is now well into next summer, and we just added a gym membership to counter stationary activity which also adds life complications.  My buffer still stands and is growing, but my writing time isn't going to expand back to normal like I'd hoped.


	20. Dinner and Company

*******

With Kramer pushing for Peter to sign the forms to transfer Neal’s care, they took the situation over to Hughes for help with their battle.

Entering his superior’s office, Peter quickly gave him a rundown on the situation.  “Kramer wants me to sign Neal’s contract over to him so that he can transfer him to DC.”

Startled, Hughes looked up between the three men entering his office.  “And why would you like to steal our CI?”

“I don’t think Peter has handled Neal as well as he needs.  Criminals need firmer hands.”  Kramer explained.

“And you think that you can do a better job?”  Hughes asked skeptically.

“Yes, I know how to keep a CI in line.”

“That is why your CI just happened to remain so happily out of prison.”  Neal commented sarcastically.

“No one asked you.”  Kramer told him off.

“Gentlemen!”  Hughes raised his voice to regain order to the meeting.  “Kramer.  What makes you think that we are simply going to hand over one of our best assets because you feel that you can handle him better?”

“Under Peter’s care he has been arrested for stealing a jewel, is the prime suspect for stealing a treasure, and who knows how many smaller crimes he has committed under your watch.”  Kramer challenged.  “I think that I can have a more impartial view of him that would give him less leeway for sneaking behind my back.”

Recognizing the threat for what it was, Hughes was took a stern stance to remind the visiting agent of his place.  “That is enough, Kramer.  I will not have you entering my office on the pretext of helping, only to listen to you endeavor to undermine my team.  We have the highest closure rate in the FBI and the best agents that I have had the pleasure of working with.  As for these crimes that you mentioned, Caffrey has either been cleared of all charges, or he is no longer a suspect for every one of them.”  Making his final statement, he dismissed Kramer’s efforts.  “If you want to push this option, we can certainly call for a meeting with the brass… I’m sure they would like a detailed plan for how to plan on carrying out your ‘firm hand’ methods.”

 Growling out his words, Kramer made it clear that the situation wasn’t over before leaving the office to make his calls.

Answering his phone, Peter took a moment to talk to Chuck before he returned to the conversation that had continued around him.

“Chuck has found something in Mozzie’s possessions.  He wants us to meet at Neal’s place in the morning to review it.”

Working to regain his composure, Hughes agreed.  “It has been a long day and we have made a lot of progress.  I think we should keep up appearances for the evening and reconvene with rested brains in the morning.  Contact me as soon as you have any information, and I’ll come in to process it.”

“Sir?”  Neal asked.

“He just threatened me and the entire team.  You can bet that I want to nail this case down as soon as possible.”  Hughes was completely on board.

Blinking, the other two weren’t above accepting assistance. 

“Thank you, sir.  Are you sure that it won’t look suspicious though?”  Neal continued.

Frowning, Hughes came up with a way to work around the situation.  “Kramer has laid down his gauntlet, now it’s my turn to respond.  It’s only natural that I would be in the office early and working with you to battle his likely plans for attack.”

 “I’ll contact you as soon as we have something then.”  Peter agreed to the arrangement.

Calling it a day, the group dispersed to wrap up their work before heading home.

*******

Having left his possessions in Peter’s car for the day, Chuck was invited over to the Burkes for dinner.

“You put me up for three days, so I can at least provide dinner while you are here.  Besides, I have your luggage.”  Peter had insisted. 

Approaching the front door to the quaint little brownstone, Chuck smiled at the happy barking sounds that he could hear emanating from within.  Stepping onto the porch, he was about to ring the bell when the door opened anyway.

“Come on in Chuck, El is in the kitchen and Peter stepped out back to answer a call.”  Neal greeted him.

Grinning at Neal, Chuck teased.  “And so you are quite at home to answer their door for them.”

“Well it was Satch here that alerted your presence before you could even ring the doorbell.”  Giving the dog a good rub and scratch, he added.  “Who is a good dog?  Yeah, you are boy.”

Greeting the dog himself, Chuck then straightened to follow Neal back to the kitchen.

Entering the room, he was surprised to see a woman who strongly reminded him of Neal in appearance with her blue eyes and dark hair.  “Mrs. Burke.”  He greeted upon introduction.

“Please, call me Elizabeth.  Peter has told me a great deal about you in the last few days, so it is nice to get to meet you.”  She smiled warmly as she greeted him.

Noticing that Elizabeth was observing him as she finished prepping the meal, Chuck understood that she was part making sure that he was going to be a good influence on Neal, and part making sure that he wasn’t a threat to Peter.  Smiling at her, he tried to convey that he wasn’t a threat in any way.

When dinner was ready, Peter had finished his call and they all gathered around the table to eat.

Sticking to general conversation, Chuck regaled them with stories of the school days that he shared with Neal. 

Amused, Elizabeth could picture Neal sketching a teacher that he didn’t like as a slave driver.  “Have you ever drawn Peter in such a manner?”  She asked.

Smirking, Neal teased.  “No, but I suppose I should get on that now that you have mentioned it.”

With a mock glare, Peter responded.  “If you do, I can always dig up a few more mortgage cases to entertain you.”

Playfully clearing the smirk away, Neal pretended to be threatened. “Okay, keep any such drawing hidden… got it.”  However, the playful glint to his eyes kept any belief in his words at bay.

“You had better watch it.”  Peter mock growled with a humorous glint.

“Now, now.”  Elizabeth gently chided with a smile.  She was obviously enjoying their banter, but she didn’t want the situation to turn into anything real.

By the time they had finished eating, Chuck could see that Elizabeth was feeling more comfortable with the situation.

When it came time to go, Chuck was surprised by the sending off that he received. 

After Peter squished Neal in a hug, he turned and gave Chuck a big brotherly hug as well.  Then, Elizabeth followed suit by not only hugging Neal goodnight, but by then turning to Chuck and welcoming him back with a hug.  Her actions happily surprised everyone.

*******

Having sent their guest off for the night, Peter turned to Elizabeth with a smile.  “So, you like Chuck?”

Smiling back, Elizabeth reached up and placed her hand along the side of his face.  “He is like Neal’s little brother… which makes him something like a youngest brother for you.”  Rubbing her finger along his cheek, she continued.  “I do like him.  Chuck appears to be pleasant, and you speak of him highly as a young agent.  That is good enough for me.”

Kissing her and wrapping her into his arms, Peter felt rather content.

After a few moments, he sighed as he pulled away to help clean up for the night.  “Let’s close up for the night and head to bed.”

Exchanging another kiss, they moved to begin their evening tasks.

“What happened in Burbank?  When you left, you were so angry with Neal and he was your prime suspect for stealing the treasure.  Then you called and said that you knew Neal’s entire life story and you’re both getting along again.”  It was an expected question.

Pausing from his task for a moment, Peter carefully chose his words.  “Neal… he has a history that even he didn’t remember until recently.  Although Neal seemed to sense that something was off once we pulled into a familiar parking lot, he didn’t know what was going on, or why we found ourselves approached by an angry mob when we entered the building.”  Laughing softly, he remembered watching the exchange with understanding this time.  “Once we got Chuck to explain what was going on, we discovered that Neal had been shot to death protecting Chuck’s family before disappearing in the hands of the enemy.  Ever since then, we have been working to fill in the gaps of what happened to him and why he lost years of his life.”

Gasping, Elizabeth hadn’t foreseen anything like that being the reason behind their renewed friendship.  “What happened to him?”  She said without thinking.

Wincing, Peter turned away from her for a moment as his mind replayed through the story.  Looking back at her with a pained expression, he dodged telling her the specific details.  “I’m not supposed to be telling you anything, but… it was cruel hon.  They… they used him as a science experiment to test their controlling methods, to make him a criminal against his will.”

Beginning to cry, Elizabeth moved to hug her husband.  “Do you know who would do such a cruel thing?”

“Only a few of them… Keller and Kramer are the only ones that we have been able to identify so far.  We don’t even know how he got between the two places as a dead corpse, who else is involved, or what their intentions are beyond the appearance of wishing to use him as a patsy.”  Venting a little of his frustration, Peter held Elizabeth closer to draw from her strength.

“How is the investigation progressing?”  Elizabeth asked.

“Chuck is a ranking agent sent here until further notice, I was promoted, Hughes is helping, and Neal… he is also working to help.  In the meanwhile, we have some information from Mozzie… it looks like Mozzie stole the treasure and left Neal behind as the fall guy.  There are some documents that he left for Neal that we are meeting to go through in the morning, hopefully that will shed some more light on both cases.”

Taking a few moments to enjoy each other’s company, Elizabeth cried while Peter worked through some of his sorrow for all that had happened.  When they pulled apart, it was to simply finish up before going to bed.

*******

Entering June’s mansion, Chuck looked around in awe.  “So… this is where you have been since you left us.  I can see why Peter was so annoyed at your luck.”  He teased.

Amused as well, Neal enjoyed showing him the way up to his apartment.

Walking into the apartment, Chuck looked around the place.  “Although the house overall is great, I think I like this room the best so far.  The room fits you… its very nice, but it also allows you to have open secrecy.”  Continuing his analysis, Chuck started poking around the book shelves after placing his luggage next to the couch.  “You have the windows and doors to let in light, but there is no clear view of the room in close range beyond the balcony… and you have many secret crannies inside.”  Turning to Neal, he finished.  “It’s like you.  You have to be viewed up close to get beyond the masks, and even then, you still have little pieces of yourself that you keep hidden away.”

Blushing ever so slightly, Neal was interested to hear Chuck’s perspective more, but a gentle knock on the door diverted the conversation another direction.

“I’m glad to see that you are home Neal.”  June greeted him at the door.  When she noticed Chuck looming in the background, she added.  “Who is your friend?”

“This is an old school friend and the agent we are working with for a case we picked up in Burbank, Chuck Bartowski.  Chuck, this is my friend and landlady, June Ellington.”  Neal made the introductions.

Intrigued, June moved forwards to greet her friend’s guest.  “It’s nice to meet you.”

After a few moments of pleasant conversation, June left them to settle in for the evening and promised to have the cook bring breakfast up for their meeting in the morning.

While they got settled in and ready for bed, Chuck picked up his previous conversation again.

“This place is good for you people wise too.  You have Peter and Elizabeth who are like older siblings, June watches out for you with a motherly protectiveness, and you have a team that are happy to help you find the truth even when they aren’t sure what they think about you personally at the moment.  It’s the best support system that I have seen you have.”  He was happy to see Neal so well settled.

“I could say the same for you Chuck.  With your family knowing the truth, you now have a girlfriend, a group of friends, and your family’s support in both your work and professional lives.”  He bounced Chuck’s words back at him. 

Seeing that Neal was also happy to see how life had turned out for him, Chuck once again found himself relishing in his friends return. 

“This is a happier future than simply playing around in an office to create video games.”  He realized.

“It is.  We have a future where we help other people by saving lives instead of simply creating entertainment.”  Neal added as they settled down to sleep.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you everyone for reading, reviewing, leaving kudos, following, and choosing to favorite :D


	21. Breakfast Digging

*******

Starting early, the group gathered at Neal’s for breakfast.

Walking into the apartment, Peter was glad to see that the other two were already playfully getting the food ready.  Obviously June had catered, but the food still needed to be arranged so that each person could be closest to their desired meal.  Shaking his head at their joshing, he took his seat and joined in.  “I think the coffee should be closest to me as I am going to need enough caffeine to keep from getting a headache.  Are you going to bicker this much about everything this morning?”

“We aren’t bickering, Peter, we are coming to an agreement as to where the food should be placed.”  Neal defended himself.

“Uh-uh, and did you come to agreements like this in college?”  Peter teased.

Shrugging, Chuck was more interested in the food.  “Yeah, sometimes.”

Amused, Peter threw a glance at Neal.  _It is like they are brothers who bicker, but don’t see it as such. So, this is what it is like to have two younger siblings…_   He smiled as he poured the coffee and grabbed some food before the other two could claim it.

Settling in to enjoy the pleasant meal, Peter started some general conversation.  “So, how did your evening go?”

“Chuck thinks that the apartment reflects me with open secrecy.  It is open because of the design and light, but secret as you can only see in up close and there are still lots of hidey holes.”  Neal said as he dug into his eggs and bacon.

“I hadn’t thought of that, but now that I know you better, he is right.  Although we know your whole life story, there are probably things that are still kept away in little hidey holes.”  Peter observed.

“Especially his emotions, although he will share some, he still tends to keep the full extend to himself.”  Chuck added before trying the coffee.

Laughing in response to the glare Neal threw at Chuck, Peter ducked his head to avoid being its next target.  _The banter is even more fun with a third to participate._

Giving up on the general conversation, Peter chose to focus on eating as the other two seemed to be playfully argumentative.

When they finished, Peter directed for the files to be passed over to him.  Dividing out the documents, he made three roughly even piles for each of them to read through.

“I think it will be easier for us to get through this if we divide it up fairly evenly.  Neal… this is probably going to be upsetting for all of us, but share if anything seems important to you.”  Peter directed.

“Hey, why do I get the directive to share?  Shouldn’t that apply to Chuck as well?”  Neal complained.

“Yeah it does, but as we discussed earlier, you do have the tendency to keep an element of things hidden when you can… so in this, don’t.”  Peter explained.

When Neal reacted to his statement, Peter continued.  “Neal… we have no idea what happened, but we need to know everything in order to figure it all out.  So if this triggers any memories, or if you recognize something, share it.”

Nodding in general compliance, Neal took his stack and settled in to read what appeared to be his past conversations with Mozzie.  If there was anything hidden in them, he would be the best person to notice.

Taking his stack, Peter generally sipped on his coffee as he read what appeared to be the notes of what happened in the missing time.  Although it was going to be tough reading, Peter placed the weight of the most painful pieces on himself to protect his younger friends, for a time at least, as he would have to share the information anyway.

*******

After the others had grabbed their piles, Chuck leaned forward to grab his stack of notes to see if there was anything valuable hidden in the realms of Mozzie’s mind.

Starting at the beginning, Chuck read through the details of an unwanted hostile encounter. 

Despite their history of animosity, Keller had been determined to gain Mozzie’s attention and he was willing to use any means necessary to ensure that his message was received.  As a result, he had hunted Mozzie down while he was gathering his supplies for the fractal by using a piece as bait.  During their meeting, Keller had pushed the fact that Neal wasn’t who Mozzie thought he was.  In response, Mozzie had resisted Keller’s accusations, but he eventually gave in enough to research them for himself.

In an effort to find out who Neal really was, Mozzie worked with one of his hacker friends to do a search for Neal Bennett.  Once they had found him, he followed the stories that Neal had told him to track down Danny Brooks.  Finding evidence to confirm Neal’s story, he regained some of his confidence in their friendship and reassured himself that Keller had been lying like he supposed.  Next, Mozzie ran into an issue when he went looking for the criminal Neal Caffrey.  An all encompassing search for his face brought up conflicting information.

Confused, Mozzie followed the two lines of investigation.  On one side, he watched the vague evidence of the brilliant con artist and befuddled law enforcement trying to solve his crimes, but on the other side there was a normal college student studying at Stanford.

Choosing to tackle the mysterious student first, Mozzie went through the class records and school social structure to discover that the kid had a great deal in common with his friend.  Reaching his senior year, he read about a betrayal where this ‘Bryce Larkin of the Connecticut Larkins’ had turned his friend in for cheating and stolen his girl.  With mixed feelings, Mozzie could see Neal taking a competitor out of the way so nonviolently, but everything up to that point had depicted them as being close friends.  Feeling an unease of what Neal might do to friends under the right circumstances, Mozzie continued to see what happened next.  After the kid had graduated with his degrees in computer engineering and accounting, he had taken a job in DC as an accountant at a big business bank.  Continuing to follow the paper trail, Mozzie read the details about his career in banking before he came upon the obituary and article about a late night robbery.

Taking a chance, Mozzie had done some further searching into the college student to see if he had pulled off a faked death, or if it had been real.  There wasn’t much to discover, but there were allusions to government work and reports of a betrayal.

Returning to the details about the criminal Neal Caffrey, Mozzie worked to catch him up to the point of the young agent.

Reading through the records in a new light, Mozzie noticed how fake the reports appeared to be.  Sure, there were crimes pulled off at the places and times, but there was nothing to say that Neal had been involved.  Neal’s name had been added to the records later to backfill a criminal history where there wasn’t any.

Beginning to panic, Mozzie researched further.

*******

Trying not to shudder, Peter first found himself reading through the CIA reports about Neal being drug away by the Ring.  Using the notes from security videos, it depicted how Neal was betrayed, shot through the back, and stumbled into the Intersect room.  Continuing through it, he forced himself to read through the details about Chuck’s final conversation with the man before he technically died.  Then he tried to keep his mind from picturing the scene of Neal being dead in a puddle of his own blood that left a gory path behind him as he was pulled away.

Setting it aside, he knew that it needed to be investigated.  Somehow, Mozzie had gotten his hands on classified information, and that leak would need to be sealed.

Moving on to the next documents, he read through the information about how Mozzie had used his criminal connections to discover what the Ring had done to Neal.  Although he wasn’t directly connected to the Ring, Mozzie did know people from their organization which was another troublesome discovery.

Putting the pages down, he tried to remove the gut churning images.  The Ring had drug Neal away to dispose of him in the hopes that no one would be able to revive his corpse if they couldn’t find it.  There chosen method of disposal was to simply dump him into a huge waste lot… like another piece of refuge, garbage, or trash.  Wiping the moisture from his eyes before shaking his head, Peter had known the basic information before, but Mozzie had filled in more of the reasoning which only added to his nightmare supply.

Proceeding onto the next part, Peter read through Mozzie’s records on how Neal was transferred to the unknown persons who had experimented on him.

Apparently, Neal’s body was discovered by workers dumping the next day’s load into the lot.  Following protocol, the police were called, pictures were taken, evidence collected, and the body was transported to the nearest morgue as a John Doe.  There, his supposed family claimed the body before disappearing into the unknown.

Wrapping up his research with the last few pages, Peter read about the group responsible.  _Even Mozzie didn’t find much about them_ he was disheartened to learn. Still, he did manage to find why they went looking at a morgue for their test subject, which was obvious really.  Since the man was a John Doe and no one could solve his murder, no one asked too many questions when the victim’s family showed up and they were provided with a low risk guinea pig. 

Closing the files, Peter realized that their best leads were still Kramer and Keller, but at least Mozzie had managed to fill the gaps in between the two situations.

*******

Once they had all finished going through their piles, they began to discuss what they had found.

Chuck started by summarizing what he had discovered.  “In short, I think Keller was working to alienate your support system.  He told Mozzie that you weren’t the person that he thought you were.  Mozzie eventually fell for it and researched to discover that you were also Bryce Larkin.  Learning that you worked with the government as more than a consultant, but more like an agent, was rather unnerving for him.  Throw in that you had seemingly betrayed me and were reputed to be a traitor to the government, and he decided not to risk hanging around for fear of what you might do to him.”

Nodding, Neal agreed with him.  “Some of his notes addressed that, the desire to get away from me, I mean.  Basically, he felt betrayed to discover that I had lied to him so he stole the treasure to fund his escape before the situation turned into a trap.”

“Did you notice anything different around the time?”  Peter asked.

Thinking, Neal tried to recall if he had.  “I guess he seemed to be over the top, like he was going through solving puzzles and researching more than usual which meant that he wasn’t talking to me.”  Shrugging, he seemed to understand why he had missed the signs.  “Since I didn’t remember, I didn’t even think to notice that something was wrong beyond the obvious issues with Adler.”

Not dwelling on that, Peter asked another question.  “Did you know that Mozzie had contacts into the Ring?”

“Yes, before I lost my memory.  He was never directly involved, so we didn’t think that angle was a high concern, but it was a means of getting information without being obvious.  Why wouldn’t Neal be curious of the criminal organizations out there?  Wouldn’t he want to know about the Ring so that he could avoid them?  Fortunately, Mozzie fell for it and helped to provide some integral information.”  Neal shrugged.

“What?  Mozzie has connections in the Ring?”  Chuck was surprised.  “How did that come up?”

“My research.”  Peter continued to summarize what he had discovered.  “So, it was purely coincidence that Kramer’s group found you.  Unfortunately, that doesn’t give us any new leads to follow.  It simply fills in our gaps of information on how you got from one group to the other.”

Noticing the somber expressions of the others, Neal decided to find something to provide a bit of humor to lighten the atmosphere, if even for a moment.  Coming up with the perfect solution, he made a comment about Mozzie.  “When you think about it, Mozzie must have been rather puzzled to discover that I was out of prison.”  Gaining the other’s attention, he warmed up to his topic of choice.  “After all, he thought I was sitting in super max only to discover that I was actually out roaming the world?  I wonder what theories he came up with to answer that…”

Chuckling slightly, Chuck answered.  “It appears that he thought you were working with the Ring for some devious plan, but when he learned the rest of the story, he seems to have made the correct assumption that you were working with the government.”

Brining the conversation back to its purpose, Peter asked the next question.  “There are two questions left in my mind and I want to know if either of you found the answers.  First, why did they place you back into prison in the first place?  You were out and dead as far as the CIA was concerned and the FBI figured you were safe in your cell, so why didn’t they make some kind of cover story and go through with their plan then?  Second, how did Keller know that Mozzie had stolen the treasure, and why did he feel the need to go after you for it when he was trying to get Mozzie to leave you behind?”

 “You don’t get it?”  Chuck asked.  “First, if they came up with a cover story, would you have let go, or would you have worked to verify it?”

Understanding the risks when Chuck put it that way, Peter answered.  “I would have looked into the situation to understand what had happened and to put the Caffrey case to rest.  That would have made it harder for them to get away with it.”

Nodding, Chuck took up the second question.  “As for the other point, Keller was trying to take Neal’s support system away, remember?  Going after him for the treasure targeted you and the FBI.  Basically, you would have been upset to learn that he had committed the crime and you would have investigated.  In the long run, you would have either proved him guilty at something, or the distrust would have torn you apart and, either way, the team would have followed you and the partnership would have been destroyed.”

Neal finished the point.  “Keller used a piece of the fractal to lure Mozzie in for his meeting, so it only stands to reason that he could assume what Mozzie would do with the signal.  After that, he had a fifty-fifty chance that I was involved or that there would be enough suspicion to make me appear guilty.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you everyone for reading, reviewing, leaving kudos, following, and choosing to favorite :D


	22. Making Plans

*******

Having run through the basic missing information, the team contacted their bosses and gave them the updated details.

Beginning with General Beckman, they started with the highest ranking leader of their team.

Ending the conversation once they had given their information, she promised to see what she could find through the fingers of many agents and International contacts.  “I have several agencies looking into this group and will keep you up to date on the results.  In the meanwhile, I suggest that Chuck contacts his father for additional assistance.”  With nothing else to suggest, she signed off until their next meeting.

Moving on to their next leader, the team contacted Hughes.

Although he was curious to hear their news, it turned out that he had news of his own to share.

“Kramer has been digging around.”

The entire team felt like rolling their eyes.  Of course he was.  What else was he going to do?

“Caffrey, is there anything troublesome that he could find in your letters to Kate?”  Hughes described a little more detail about the impending threat.

“Uh… that isn’t good.”  Neal ran his hand through his hair.  “He’s looking for the Raphael.”

“What was that about anyway?”  Peter asked.

Shrugging, Neal couldn’t elaborate.  “Let’s just say that I did what I was told and leave it at that.”

Rolling his eyes, Peter knew that it meant he didn’t need to know and therefore it wasn’t important to their current operation.

“Is there anything that you can share about the problem?”  Hughes asked.

“The painting is with my foster mom.  She is in Wit-sec, so I don’t want Kramer and his group going after her.”  Neal explained the part that really made him nervous.

“Do we need to alert the Marshals?”  Hughes had no idea what they might be walking into.

“I’ll take care of that angle.  However, to keep up appearances, we are going to need a plan to keep that painting out of his hands.  Although he won’t expect any government related reason for me to have it, he would have a criminal proof that I took it which would only help his agenda.”

“Okay, do you have a plan as to how we should go about that?”  Hughes asked while everyone turned to Neal.

Smiling at Neal’s expression, Chuck thought, _He does have a plan._

Leaning forward conspiratorially, Neal began to outline the plan forming in his mind.  “Sara has the missing piece that Kramer is going to need.  I think we should use that to our advantage and have her help us out… she wants the Raphael, so I think she would be willing.”

As he went, the others contributed details that they thought would be helpful to further elaborate their plan of action. 

Once the plan was created, they disconnected the call to put it into action.

*******

Standing in Neal’s apartment, Peter was hopeful when they called Sara.  _Maybe having her get involved will help her to understand the truth about Neal… and maybe they will still have a chance to fix their relationship._   Still looking to get Neal settled down, Peter thought that Sara was the best person for him from what he had seen.

Focusing back on the call, Peter caught the end of the plan.  “Then I’ll bring the painting to you as a consultant that has confirmed the authenticity.”

“That could work.  I’ll need to get my boss to sign off on it though.  What does Peter think?”  She asked somewhat suspiciously.

“I think it’s a great idea.”  Peter piped in helpfully.  “We have cleared Neal of being involved with the treasure, but Kramer wants to drag him away to DC permanently… and we can’t give him leverage to do that.”

Chuck jumped in to add, “We also have reason to believe that Kramer is going to use him as a patsy for something should he manage to get him to DC.”

“Who is that?”  Sarah asked.

“Agent Charles Carmichael, an old school friend of Neal’s.”  Peter explained.

“But you can call me Chuck.” 

“I look forward to meeting you in person, Chuck.”  Sara might have said more, but her phone started beeping.  “That would be agent Kramer on the other line.  You had better get going if you’re going to beat him.”

Disconnecting the call, the three agents got ready to leave, bid June farewell on their way out, and jumped into Peter’s car.

Having taken Peter’s keys, Neal insisted on driving.  “I know where I am going and how to get there the quickest.”

Settling into the passenger seat, Peter enjoyed the ride and wondered just where Ellen lived while Chuck chatted from the back.

When they pulled over, Peter was surprised to see them near the Roosevelt Island Tramway.  “She lives on the island?”  He asked.

“Yeah, we have had beepers to keep in touch… amongst other means, so she moved here to be closer to me in my Caffrey alias.  When I was working the case involving the Raphael, she was going to be the go between to transport it to Kate.  Obviously that didn’t work out, so she still has the painting hidden.”  Neal explained.

Purchasing their tickets, the three of them settled into a car and relaxed for the ride.  As they rode, Peter coordinated with Diana to keep track of what Kramer was up to.

“Sara is stalling him?”  He nodded along as she described what Sara was doing.  “Good.  Let me know when he heads for the place as we are headed there now.” 

When Diana questioned what was going on, Peter didn’t tell her much.  “I don’t want to say anything yet as I’m not allowed to, but the situation will come to light soon enough.”  Having satisfied her curiosity for the moment, he settled back to watch as Neal showed Chuck the view and named the recognizable buildings in sight.

*******

Once the tram had landed, Neal took his friends for a walk along the shore.  “Her place is just ahead.  It has a great view of the water… which makes it a shame that she will have to move.”  He sighed.  “Since this puts her on the radar, Ellen will be gone within the week.”

Chuck felt sad for him.   _He just got Peter and I back… only to lose Ellen?_

Walking up to the apartment building, Neal rang the doorbell with a smile at his friends.  “You have heard about each other, but this will be the first time that I can have my chosen family together.” 

As Chuck watched Neal’s face, he could see a peace wash over him when he heard the voice answering the buzzer.  “Hello?”

“Hi Ellen… it’s me, Neal.  I’m here to pick up that painting and I have my friends Peter and Chuck with me.”

The voice sounded steady, but there was an undertone of excitement.  “Your agent friends that you have told me so much about? Well, bring them on up and I’ll grab the tube.”

Neal led the way while Peter and Chuck exchanged looks behind his back.  _We are finally going to meet his family…_   Looking at Peter, Chuck could see the nervous excitement reflected there.  _He is also looking forward to this._

Catching up to Neal at her door, the three of them only stood for a moment before the door was pulled back by a friendly woman.  Her hair was something between being grayish and dirty blond, and her eyes were a sparkling grayish green.  Smiling broadly, she grabbed Neal into a hug. 

“Neal, I haven’t seen you since…” 

“Since the day I left Wit-sec.”  Neal finished her sentence.

Once she had released him, she shook hands with the others as she was introduced to them.

Welcoming everyone inside, she walked arm in arm with Neal as they made their way through the apartment to the balcony.  Along the way, she made general conversation with Neal about her place and the weather.

 Having shown them around, she settled the group down in her living room to talk.  Through the balcony doors, they had the unobstructed view of the water and the city, but the privacy of being indoors to talk.

“You look good.”  Neal complimented.  As Ellen made the beginnings of a disagreeing sound, he added.  “The same.”

Rebuffing his words, she commented. “It’s been nearly a decade and a half.”

“You haven’t seen him since his eighteenth birthday?”  Peter couldn’t help but ask.

Looking at Neal, Ellen felt bad.  “Yeah.  I kind of ruined it for him.”  Moving to distract herself, she pulled a picture off of the wall and passed Neal a picture from his childhood.  Sitting back down while he stared at it, she told him who was in the picture.

After a moment, she voiced her concerns.  “Truth.  Do you hate me for telling you what I did?”

“No.”  Neal explained that she had told him the truth, that he could never hate her for that.  Then he asked her the question that he needed answered.  “Truth.  Was my father always corrupt?”

Looking like her mind was decades in the past, she described how they had met as first year detectives.  “He was the best… then.  The evil came after.”

Sitting quietly to the side, Peter and Chuck enjoyed this rare family moment.  It was a look back into time, into how Ellen and Neal had interacted in his growing up years.

Before too long though, their time was running out, so they had to leave.

Having left it handy, Ellen grabbed the tube and gave it to Neal.

“Kate never came to get it?”  Neal questioned.

“The pretty girl with dark hair?”  At Neal’s nod she continued.  “Yeah, she did.  Said she wanted you to have it.”

Wrapping up their conversation, she told Neal to go.  Then turning to his friends, she took a moment to talk to them specifically.  “Thank you for helping him.  Neal spent a lot of time alone growing up, so it’s nice to know that he has found himself such good friends to support him.”  Ellen showed her gratitude.

Reflecting the compliment back to her, Peter responded.  “We should be the ones thanking you.  You’re the person who raised him to be the man that he is.”

Smiling through her sad expression, Ellen was obviously happy to get to briefly meet Neal’s friends and to get the chance to settle some things with her foster son.  Hurrying them out the door, she sent them running for the tram cars.

*******

Settling into the tram car again, Chuck explained why Kate hadn’t taken the painting.  “She was an undercover agent and needed the painting for an assignment to catch some corruption behind it.  When her situation changed, she no longer needed it, so she left if safely with Ellen.”

Before they could carry the conversation further, Peter got the call from Diana.  “Boss, I’m with Kramer.  He knows Caffrey is on Roosevelt Island.”

“Where are you?”  Peter asked with a sinking gut.

“The tram terminal.  Manhattan side.”  She answered.

Ending the call, Peter turned to Neal.  “If we ride this out, he’ll have you.”

“Help me up.”  Neal ordered Chuck.

Meanwhile Peter was starting to panic.  “Forget that.  You’ll never survive the fall.”

Ducking his head back in slightly to take the tube from Peter, Neal reassured him.  “I’m not going to jump.”  Then he scared him more by saying his actual plan.  “I’m doubling back to Roosevelt Island.  Wish me luck.”  Neal said quickly before either of them could argue with him.

“Neal, that’s crazy!  Get back in here!”  Peter hollered at him only to have his words fall on deaf ears. 

Turning to Chuck, he saw that the other man was nervous, showing some fear, but Chuck clearly believed that Neal knew what he was doing.  _Like the little brother who believes that the big brother can do virtually no wrong… at least he knows enough to worry._   Peter shook his head in frustration.

When Neal moved to take the leap, the car was deathly silent.  Neither man even drew a breath as they waited to see what their friend’s fate would be. 

“Wow.”  Was all that Peter could find to say when Neal had pulled another impossible feat.

Catching their breath again, Peter and Chuck turned to watch the terminal approach.  They could see Kramer, Diana, and a whole collection of agents waiting, but at least Neal had gotten away.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you everyone for reading, reviewing, leaving kudos, following, and choosing to favorite my stories and I :D
> 
> With the new year starting next week, I would like to take this opportunity to give you something of an update on what to expect.
> 
> My posting schedule contains three more weeks of this story as we wind towards the finish.  I have a joint project with Quinis where we are each posting our own variation of the same story concept with plans to begin sharing next week. Mine is "Fake Prada" (yes, Peter gets to talk Prada, even though fakes are a bigger part of the story line) and it will span four weeks. Then I plan to finish "Paternal Discoveries" which has four more one shot chapters and a new cover art. Finally, "Transforming Perceptions" has been hanging out for a while, so I would like to post it. Then, what comes next will be up to you all, as I'll be taking votes at that point.
> 
> On a personal front, some things are still up in the air, and others we are working to regain a semblance of order. My primary source of income was bought into a merger with my location not on the list of those guaranteed to be kept (the decisions will be settled this summer), the second longest standing is a entrepreneurial business with my sister where China was brought into the private industry as competition (we are working to carve a niche in the new market), and then there is the third job brought in to support expenses while we rework our options. This years our travel goal is to reach Alaska and Hawaii to complete our visits to all 50 states in the union! Then with the last of our local relations having passed away last summer, we are working to pick up our neglected tasks that were put aside for family obligations through poor health leading to relations' deaths in recent years.
> 
> In short, my buffer is growing with many more plots I intend to add, and although the rest of my life isn't settled, some aspects are getting better. I hope everyone has a Merry Christmas, and I look forward to sharing in many stories through the coming year :D


	23. Entrapment

*******

Landing, Peter knew he was about to confront his former mentor and new opponent.

Moving to the street where they weren’t going to be interrupted by people, the conversation took an aggressive turn.

“You gonna tell me what happened up there?”  Kramer attacked.

Standing his ground, Peter stood strongly in place and faced him down.  “I was bringing him back.”

“Then where is he?”  Kramer fumed.

“He’d be here with us now if you hadn’t thrown a dozen guns at his face.”

“This is my fault?”  Kramer stepped forward aggressively.

Stepping forward to meet him, Peter wasn’t afraid.  “You box him in, he’s gonna run.  You have no idea how to handle him.  I do!”

“Clearly.  Are you handling him, or becoming him?”  Kramer implied his opinion with his question. 

Then after conferring with one of the other agents, Kramer moved towards his vehicle.  Climbing into his SUV, Kramer threw out another threat.  “Neal’s got under an hour to meet Sara Ellis.  If he makes it, I’ll be waiting for him.”

Letting him go, Peter turned to Chuck.  “It’s times like this that makes me wonder just how good of a getaway driver June is.”

Laughing, Chuck changed the question.  “Rather, the question is how good of a getaway driver is Neal... he wouldn’t make June take the challenge.”

Shaking his head, Peter walked Chuck back to his car for the drive to Sterling Bosch.

Arriving at the building, he found a parking place and hurriedly walked in.  Entering the lobby, he saw Kramer walking in confidently from one side, while Neal snuck in from another.  Shaking his head, he knew that Sara was going to be the person making the difference.  If she had persuaded her boss to sign the papers, then they were alright, but if she hadn’t…

Blocking Neal’s path, Kramer tried to intimidate him.  “I knew you could be reasonable.  I think you might take a real shine to DC after all.”

“Don’t count on it.”  Neal said.

“Ah, you do the honors Pete.”  Kramer wanted to inflict further damage to their relationship, so he instructed Peter to cuff Neal.

Placing Neal in cuffs, Peter exchanged winks with Neal.  Kramer thought he had won did he, then he was about to be in for a surprise.

“Excuse me.  That painting is property of Sterling Bosch Insurance.”  Sara entered with her boss at the right time and played her role well.

Smirking, Kramer belittled her involvement like it was nothing.  “Valiant effort, Ms. Ellis.  This is evidence in a criminal investigation.”

Trying really hard not to look smug, Peter watched as Kramer’s face fell through the following conversation.  When it had finished, he didn’t allow Neal to take the payment per their roles, but he happily took the cuffs off.

Sending Neal and Chuck off to the car, they were to get something figured out for lunch while Peter dealt with Kramer.  Fortunately, there wasn’t much for him to do.

Before he left to join his friends, Peter listened to one last threat from Kramer.  “This isn’t over yet Pete.”  He stated in a low growl.  Then he added to it as he left.  “Not by a long shot.”

*******

Debating with Neal, Chuck killed time by choosing their lunch location while they waited for Peter.  He wasn’t exactly paying attention to the places that Neal kept throwing out, so he didn’t know which location was settled on.

When Peter walked up, Chuck looked to him questioningly.  “How did it go?”

“It isn’t over, but we won the battle.”  Peter stated as he started the car.  “Where are we going for lunch?”  Taking note of Neal’s choice, he pulled into traffic and headed for their destination.

Driving along, he suddenly had a question.  “Neal, the first time Kramer and I went after you for the Degas, how’d you switch the paintings?”

Laughing, Neal answered.  “I snuck up to the penthouse, pulled the swap, then base-jumped off the building and landed on Wall Street.”

Chuckling, Peter didn’t seem to believe him at first.  “Fine.  Don’t tell me.”  When Neal kind of tilted his head and averted his eyes slightly, Peter questioned him again.  “You’re serious?  That wasn’t just some line to humor me?”

“That is what I did Peter.  Remember?  I don’t lie to you.”  Neal stated.

“I didn’t say that Neal.   It just seemed too fantastic to be the exact story, so I thought you might have spiced it up a little bit.”  Peter soothed.

“Still adjusting to the honest agent bit, huh?”  Neal softly questioned.

“A little.  But you never lied to me as Caffrey either, so it’s not a huge adjustment.”  Peter answered.

“It’s figuring out his codes and when he is bending the truth that is the challenge.”  Chuck decided to lighten the mood.

Smiling as they pulled into a parking space, Chuck was glad that his comment had started a new argument that had placed smiles on everyone’s faces. 

Walking into the café, they selected a table in the back corner booth for their meal as there was a dual purpose intended.  First, the obvious reason for going out to lunch was to get food as they had been going since early in the morning.  Second, they were going to be monitoring Kramer via earpieces, so they didn’t want to be in the office where he might see them.

Ordering their meals, the men settled in to quietly listen while they waited for their food. 

As the waitress and other patrons buzzed around, they didn’t want to look suspicious by all sitting so quietly, so they had each brought something to do.  Neal pulled out his sketch pad and began to draw, Peter had a crossword puzzle to work on, and Chuck pulled out his phone to play games. 

While they worked through their independent projects, Peter would occasionally create an interaction to hide his comments with things like, “What is a word for someone who is willing to cause pain or suffering to others?”

In response, the others threw out the words on their minds for whatever Kramer had just said.  Brutal, barbaric, harrowing, and savage were just a few of the words that they threw back at him.  “Funny, I was thinking more along the lines of inhumane myself.” Peter said as he placed the word in a spot just in case someone was looking.

As they wrapped up their meal, Chuck glanced over to see what Neal had drawn.  Gasping, it was a perfect picture of him, Peter, and Ellen standing in a family pose, something that he knew hadn’t happened anywhere beyond Neal’s imagination. 

Grabbing it, he showed it to Peter.  Watching as his face melted into something like brotherly love, Chuck was glad that he had surprised Neal with his actions to ensure that Peter got to see it too.

“It’s beautiful Neal.  I’m glad we got to make something of it for you today.”  He said as he passed it back.  There was something of a waiver to his voice, so it was obvious that he meant every word.

“Thanks.  I’m glad that you both got to meet her too.”  Neal ducked his head.

Pulling Neal into a sideways hug after they had stood, Peter gave him a light squeeze before releasing him as they walked back to the car.

*******

Making a brief stop at Neal’s to plan with the bosses, Peter found himself struggling to get used to reporting via a computer image.  This time was more complicated than the others too, because they had the screen split between Hughes and Beckman.

“Kramer is not happy we managed to deflect his attack and has vowed that ‘This isn’t over.’  After he left Sterling Bosch, he went back to his conference room at the office. The first parts of his activity there seemed to be frustrated ranting to work through his temper.  Once he had finished that, he made a phone call.”  Peter started the description of what they had heard.

“Did he say anything of value?”  Hughes asked when he paused.

Picking up the next part, Chuck relayed what he had gathered out of the call.  “He spoke with a man named Wickham who seemed to be located in London. Although we couldn’t hear Wickham’s side, we did get Kramer’s side of the conversation.”  Pausing to shake his head, he wasn’t happy to relay the next part.  “He first discussed how their previous plan of getting Neal on charges with the painting had failed.  Then he transitioned to talking about how important their plan was.  Something about testing the success of the Intersect they had placed in Neal’s head, and that it was integral to have a functioning patsy to pull of their theft of the actual Intersect.”

Then Neal picked up the next part of the conversation to keep the other two from having to say it.  “Apparently, their plan is for them to make sure I was a successful program before using it on an agent they know to be involved with the Intersect Project.  Using their patsy, they would steal the database while leaving no trail back to them.  Then they discussed what to do with me.  It would appear, they want to use me as a street source themselves while Kramer is to get the perk of a higher closure rate for the trouble of dealing with me… either that, or they are to send someone to kill me as they fear what would happen if some were to discover their plans.”

Taking the conversation again, Peter took the final portion of Kramer’s conversation.  “Since they are growing more desperate, Kramer is getting petty in his approach.  His latest plan is to use Neal’s jump to trump up charges of ‘Public Endangerment’ as a means of proving just how inept I am at being his handler.  Once he succeeds, he intends on brining in the Marshals to transport him and make a public show of his achievement.”  Peter growled lightly.  It was obvious he no longer had any remaining regard for his former friend.

“I see.”  Beckman said.  “The English connection works with the word I have received back from Commander Barker.  He is familiar with the organization and is working to handle the problem from their end.  In the meanwhile, I have a plan for how to deal with Agent Kramer.”

Listening to her plan, Peter appreciated her turn of devious brilliance.  Smiling at the prospect of surprising Kramer so thoroughly, he could tell that the others were equally happy to flip Kramer’s plans back on him.

Working together, they organized a transcontinental operation.

*******

With their plan in motion, the team returned to the office to await Kramer’s next move.

Riding along the way, Chuck watched the serious and determined expressions on their faces.  Kramer thought that he was taking on his younger protégé and his criminal informant… he was going to be in for quite a surprise.

Arriving back at the office, Peter went up to check on the progress of their plan with Hughes, while Neal and Chuck settled in to do paperwork at Neal’s desk.

“Do you think that Hughes managed to arrange… the little surprise?” Chuck whispered.

“Hughes is very good at being sneaky when he wants to.  I’m sure he pulled it off with no one being the wiser.”  Neal assured him.

 _This is going to be so much fun!  Kramer will have his just deserts as soon as he makes his appearance._   Chuck thought in anticipation.

Smirking at him, Neal teased.  “You don’t like surprises for yourself, but you are rather eager to pull this surprise on Kramer.”

Showing some of the fury that he felt, Chuck hid his face from the rest of the office.  “After what he did to you… this is going easy on him.”  He vented a little bit.

With a sigh, Neal softened his expression.  “Peter seems to be of the same opinion.” Smiling lightly at Chuck, he added.  “How did I get lucky enough to have two friends like you?”

“It’s funny, the turns that life brings, isn’t it?”  Chuck teased.

Pushing him lightly, Neal reverted to their playful banter that surprised the office personnel who were looking on.

“Have you and Peter never goofed around?  The office seems to be surprised that you would physically push anyone in a playful manner.”  He questioned.

Shrugging, Neal didn’t pay them any mind.  “I’ve known you since we were civilian kids, so our friendship is different.  Besides, most of the team still think that I stole the treasure and therefore can’t have any real friends due to my selfish behavior.”

Rolling his eyes, Chuck commented.  “You sure know how to make people believe that you are a bad guy.”

“It is rather easy as people seem to be more willing to see the surface than to look beyond.”  There seemed to be a slight annoyance in his tone.

“No wonder you befriended the archeologist then… he has the stubbornness and tenacity to dig deeper.”  Chuck stated. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you everyone for reading, reviewing, leaving kudos, and following :D  
> Have a Happy New Year!


	24. Coming to Conclusions

*******

Watching from above, Peter observed the activity in the office below.

Slowly, the rest of the team trailed in from their lunch hours and the office began to get noisier as they began making headway on their afternoon duties.

As they buzzed around, he could see that there were several glances thrown at Neal and Chuck as this was the first time both had remained seated at the desk for any length of time.  The glances were curious and he could read that several of them were gossiping about Neal and Chuck.  _Apparently they gave the office a show of their friendship while I was in the meeting._   Peter smiled as he saw that they had talked in a bantering way and that Neal had playfully shoved Chuck over something.  Everyone knew they were old school friends, but they were obviously curious about how Neal interacted with people from his past.

When the elevator dinged, it sent a ripple through the office and Peter watched as everyone moved to their desks.  From there, they either stood or sat in a defensive position as they all seemed to sense the impending threat, despite the fact that none of them knew what was going on.

Taking a deep breath, Peter knocked on the conference room wall as he moved to walk down the stairs.  Pausing part way, he knew that Kramer was walking in to make his move.  Glaring down, he said “What is this?”

Gesturing around at his entourage, Kramer then turned to Peter.  “These Marshals are here to take Neal Caffrey into custody.”

Holding the high ground, Peter put his hands on his hips and breathed through his nose, which only added to his intimidating appearance.  “For what?”

“If you had only listened to me.”  Kramer started into his speech.

“For what?” Peter interrupted him to repeat.

“Public endangerment.  I’ve got a dozen eyewitnesses who saw Caffrey hop that tram.  Combine that with evading arrest, obstruction of justice.”  Shrugging like it didn’t matter, Kramer kept the charges coming.  “I may even throw in jaywalking charges for good measure.”

With the whole office watching, Peter stared Kramer down.  “We’re not in the revenge business.  Neal made you angry, and now you want to hurt him.”  He chose his words carefully.

“Just control him.  Neal’s got a lot of skeletons.  I’ll pick one, slap that anklet on him, and he’ll work for me in D.C.”  Then he added the verbal slap.  “He is programmed to be a criminal so there is nothing more to expect of him, and you don’t have the guts to use that to your advantage.” 

“’Programmed’ huh.”  Peter looked like the cat that ate the canary.  “It’s funny you should use that word Kramer.”

“What could possibly be so amusing about that?  He is a criminal, and nothing will ever change that!”  He stated.

*******

Watching from Neal’s side, Chuck waited for the situation to play out.  They already had Kramer for what he had done; this was just a show to see if they could get him to slip up any further.

“He wasn’t always a criminal… not until you made him one!”  Peter accused.

Spluttering, Kramer was getting worked up.  “Made him?  He was a criminal before I even came into the picture!”

“So that is why you had to strap him down, torture him, and program him?”  Peter’s voice had turned deadly cold, something that sent a shiver down Chuck’s spine.  _Even Neal has never seen him go that far before._   Chuck noted as Neal also reacted beside him.

Beginning to panic, Kramer didn’t know how to react or what to say.  Before he could come up with something, every screen in the room tuned to static and Peter’s words were proven true.

Blipping into focus, there was a white room filled with medical and technical equipment. Placed face down on the table in the middle of the room, there was an obvious corpse with a bullet hole in his back.  As the people in the room turned him over, the team was horrified to watch as the action revealed an obviously dead Neal Caffrey.

Gasps filled the air as the process began to bring the man back to life.  It was obviously something very painful ,and the people doing it weren’t taking any care to ease the pain.

Although he said it very low, Chuck could hear Neal growling beside him.  “Orion!  We need the evidence, but not for the whole team to see!”

Reaching out to place a hand on his shoulder, like Peter had been doing, Chuck extended the offer of support as it couldn’t be comfortable for Neal to watch what had happened.  He already had the memories of going through it.

Looking back to the screen, he saw that the screen was muted and had been fast forwarded to the point where Neal was left to recover.  As the scene continued to play out, they watched the personnel perform tests and experiments on Neal to see how well he could handle the technology they intended to use on him.  Despite the lack of volume, it was obvious that Neal was crying out or biting his lip in agony through those sessions… and yet they still refrained from offering any means of dulling the pain.

Jumping again, the security tape was taken forwards to show Neal in some kind of contraption that looked like another means of torture all in itself.  While the onlookers waited, there were more surprised sounds when Keller and Kramer walked into the room together. 

Seeing that they did indeed have evidence against him, Kramer went to leave the room only to have the Marshals move to block his exit.  Turning around, Kramer was further horrified to see that the video had changed scenes.  It had moved on to depicting him placing Neal back into prison as an unconscious prisoner transport.

With Kramer’s goose well and truly cooked, the evidence stopped playing and Peter took the conversation again.  “Did it ever occur to you to wonder what Neal was doing freely out of jail in the first place?”

Attacking from his own angle, Chuck filled in that part of the story.  “Neal was working with my family to help in government operations… the same as he has been doing the whole time.”

Suddenly, an unknown voice rang sternly from the landing behind Peter and everyone turned to see the group coming out behind her.  “And he has done an admirable job too.  My team is composed of the best personnel that I have ever seen, and it’s an honor to include Mr. Caffrey in that number.  Do you really think that your treatment of him would remain unnoticed, or that you would get away with it?”

Frozen in utter defeat, there was nothing for Kramer to do or say when she gave the orders for her entourage to arrest him.

Stepping forwards to place the cuffs on him personally, Chuck had one last thing to say.  “I can at least thank you for this, that you brought my best friend back to life after he died to help my family.  But that is all that I can thank you for, as I have so many more reasons to blame you…” 

With the case all but officially closed, Beckman gave them an update before leaving as well.  “Agent Barker is breaking up the rest of the organization, and I assume you will pay the other one a visit to inform him of his extended stay before the day is done.”

Divided, the office was left in either stunned horror, or a sense of overwhelming relief.  It was over.

*******

Practically slapping his hands together, Peter felt the need to move fast and ride the win to get the rest of the situation cleared as quickly as possible.                                                             

“Jones, Diana, Chuck, and Caffrey, meet Hughes and me in the conference room.  We have that other case and the other culprit to finish taking care of.”  He barked.

Unfreezing, the agents in question gathered their files while watching Neal out of the corner of their eyes. 

In fact, everyone was looking at him in a new light.  _They will never guess that he is actually an agent, but they at least know he has worked with government before and isn’t as bad as they have thought… an improvement at least._   Turning his glance to Neal, Peter knew he wouldn’t like the pity that some were already showing, but at least it would be accompanied by some better understanding.

Awkwardly gathering around the table, the evidence was spread out and they settled in to review it.

Starting from the beginning, Diana shared her reports on tracking down the paintings.  “I went to the address you gave me Neal.  The place was completely empty and looked like it had been for at least a few weeks.  Checking through the interior as you instructed, he even cleared out the hidden paintings that were true forgeries… there was nothing left but dust in any part of the storage unit.”  Based on the look she threw at him, she was much less suspicious of him than she had been before.

“Poking around, I was able to find a security camera that showed someone of his stature clearing it out.  Although he tried to hide it, I’ve been around Mozzie enough to know that it was him.”  Pausing again to lay out her pictures, she didn’t take long before she picked her report back up again.  “A few witnesses who are regularly in the area agreed with me that he looked like Mozzie.” 

Then she finished her part by laying the painting sample and the test results out on the table.  “As we all know, this is a sample of a modern day painting, presumably Neal’s, and it was left over from the blast proving that the treasure was switched out with modern pieces.”

Picking up the next phase of the investigation, Jones reviewed what he had found on the docks once he was specifically looking for Mozzie.

“As you would guess, most of my efforts struck out as the cameras were either damaged by storms, not present, or didn’t have a view of anything worthwhile.  However, I did get one place where I could see through a small gap.  Watching the tape, it showed someone wearing the same costume that was at the storage unit entering and exiting the warehouse.”  He also paused to lay out some of the pictures that he had printed.  “It looks like the little guy took several trips, but he managed to carry everything out by passing this camera, and then he retraced his steps as he hauled the replacements back in by the same path.”

“There was no one else with him?”  Peter questioned.  _Seriously, he didn’t even hire help?_

“Fewer people would mean fewer witnesses and more pay.  Mozz wouldn’t risk brining someone else in for something this big.”  Neal answered.

Taking up the final part of the conversation, Chuck explained why Mozzie had committed the crime and left Neal behind.  “Although there are a lot of details that I can’t explain without exposing what Neal did to help my family, the short of it is that Keller hinted enough about Neal, Mozzie researched his accusations, panicked, and left.  He felt enough friendship to leave Neal a means of discovering the truth about what Kramer and Keller had done, but he wasn’t going to risk sticking around himself.  So, Mozzie pursued his long standing dream of being an island king somewhere and left Neal as his fall guy to distract everyone else while he got away.”

*******

The rest of the afternoon seemed to pass very quickly.  Dividing the necessary tasks between themselves, they moved to complete them as soon as possible.

Diana took the task of compiling the evidence into a case file that would be kept on hand.  Should they ever apprehend Mozzie, they didn’t want the evidence to be lacking as he had let all of them down in his actions.

Taking the other angle, Jones moved to get the APB and alerts out that Mozzie was a wanted man.  He spread his picture, description, information, and everything he could to ensure the job would be done.

Really, they all knew that Mozzie was gone and never to be seen again.  Something in them hoped he would find his own life out there somewhere, but they knew he had sealed his own fate when he chose to complete the ‘last big score.’

Sending Neal and Chuck down to get their things ready to leave for their meeting with Keller, Peter made a quick stop into Hughes office with a rush request before he walked down to join them.

Taking a deep breath once they were out of the building, Chuck couldn’t help but comment.  “Two down, and soon we will have the third taken care of.”

Driving along in silence, the three of them were feeling a little overwhelmed and tired.  It had been a very long day and there was still so much yet to be done.

Arriving at the prison, they passed through security and made their way to meet Keller.

“Well, hello.  I get two visits in as many days?  Are you going to present me with an anklet now too?”  He managed to mix a smirk with a sneer.

“No, we are going to extend your sentence to life though…”  Peter said as he slapped down the folder containing the paperwork.

“What?”  Keller hadn’t seen that coming.  Opening the files, he was horrified to discover that he had been caught.  “I can make a deal to give you the rest of them.”  He tried to save his own hide.

“Fortunately, we don’t need it.  There is another agent taking care of dismantling your friends and their organization.  Agent Carmichael and I just wanted to give you this information in person.”  Peter stated the facts and enjoyed watching Keller realize that not only was he going to have to face the consequences, but he was going to suffer them for the rest of his life.

“Oh, and the CIA will be along to have their chat with you.  The operation you were involved in walks along the line of treason and messes with the CIA’s most guarded secrets.”  Chuck added as they left the bewildered criminal behind them. 

Keller was obviously wondering how it had all gone wrong.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you everyone for reading, reviewing, leaving kudos, and following my stories and I :D


	25. Treaties

*******

Walking back into the office, Chuck observed the reactions of the team.  Apparently, they had decided to take advantage of their absence to put together a large card for Neal to express their sorrow for what he had been put through.  _I don’t think he is ever going to be treated with the same distrusting manner by any of these agents ever again.  They have finally gotten a glimpse of the man behind the masks._   He was pleased to see the difference from when he had first entered the office only two long days before.

Neal paused to see the card and he ducked his head at some of the words written inside.

Reaching out to place a hand on Neal’s shoulder again, Peter gave him a light squeeze before reminding him.  “Beckman is back to finish up the cases.  Let’s get these over with and then we can talk with the team.”

Nodding his head, Neal put the card down and the trio continued on up to the conference room where the leaders were waiting for the final reports to be submitted.

Taking their seats, the meeting began.

Beckman started with a forewarning.  “This is extremely confidential, I didn’t even know about this before doing an investigation for similar situations.  Nothing is to leave this room, so I must have you sign these agreements before I can go any further.”

Noticing the documents in front of them, Peter, Hughes, Neal, and Chuck each skimmed them quickly before signing their names.

With that taken care of, Beckman continued to give a brief summary of what had happened in relation to Agent X.  “Several decades ago, one of our engineers worked with his friend to create a similar programmed personality.  It was intended to infiltrate some of the deepest criminal circles for the duration of three months.  However, something went wrong.  The scientist and his handler, who happens to the designing engineer’s wife, were trapped and the whole operation has been in the wind ever since.  Some rogue MI6 agents from the project combined with the criminal element they were supposed to be infiltrating, and they have been working to get control of the Intersect technology ever since.” Switching to other files, she continued.  “Keller got involved with the group through his criminal activities.  And Kramer, he got started with the group by receiving a bribe to look the other way when they started testing some of their Intersect technology in art.  From there, he got more connected by taking further bribes, information on their competitors to improve his closure rate, and eventually the promise of a perfect CI that he could have programmed to his wishes.”

“Is she… my mom?”  Chuck asked in shock once she had finished.

Nodding her head, Beckman silently told him yes.

Returning the favor, Neal put a hand on Chuck’s shoulder.  “We’ll solve the problem and bring her home Chuck.  Let’s get this finished and then we will see what can be done to help.”

Taking over while the younger agents absorbed the reveal, Peter finished the verbal report.  “The organization picked Neal up from the morgue, revived him, placed the program into his head, and placed him back into prison with the intent of taking… control of him when his sentence was over.  Since Neal was only suppressed, he escaped to help Kate and came to the FBI for protection knowing that something was wrong, despite being unable to put it all together by himself.  Then with our recent travelling case, we were fortunate when my phone broke down and we were directed to Chuck for repairs.  Finding the team, we have removed the program and tracked down those responsible to close the case.”

Finishing the rest of the formalities, Beckman oversaw the reports being filed and that the case was closed before she took a seat.

*******

Switching gears slightly, Hughes directed them to start laying out the case on the treasure situation.

Taking the lead again, Peter broke down the basics of what had happened.  “Linking off of the Intersect case, Keller was looking to take Neal’s support system away so he started with Mozzie.  By telling him that Neal wasn’t who he thought he was, he was able to plant enough doubt for Mozzie to research for himself.  Finding that Neal was likely an agent who had been programmed, he didn’t want to get entangled for fear of getting caught up into the situation.  Pursuing a long standing dream of his, he proceeded to clear out Neal’s paintings, steal the treasure, replace it with Neal’s works, and has likely left the country to hide out as a king on some remote island where we couldn’t touch him if we ever manage to find him.  Then later, Keller took the opportunity to try and take away Neal’s support in the FBI… particularly targeting me.”  Peter paused slightly after stating that.  _It would have worked too if we hadn’t run into Chuck and the team._   Shaking his head to clear his thoughts, he finished.  “I was already suspicious of Neal because of the painting scrap, but when Keller told me that he could prove Neal’s guilt and then he kidnapped Elizabeth… his plan very nearly worked.”

Jumping in to finish the report, Neal took over as Peter was obviously upset.  “Since I was only suppressed, I used some of my skills to lure Keller into a trap and fought him before we got what we needed to arrest him.  Although Peter and I weren’t exactly getting along, we continued to work together until the travelling case revealed the truth.  Once we had gotten my memory back, we returned to New York and have been investigating with the assistance of the team.”

Working together again, they complete all of the necessary paperwork to have the case all but closed.  It would never be completely closed, not unless Mozzie were to be apprehended at some point.

With the unpleasant tasks completed, Chuck moved to ask about what he could do for him mom. 

Holding her hand up, Beckman had more to say.  “Based on everything that has been coming to light recently, it has been decided that there needs to be some ranking agents in the field to perform as filters to keep anything like this from happening.  As a result, you are both being promoted.”  She paused briefly to lay some documents down before Chuck and Neal.  “Your new roles as the Director and Assistant Director of operations means you will need to be in frequent contact with each other to complete the tasks that are to be set before you.  Because of this, agent’s Hughes and Burke will act as support and provide any means necessary to keep your activities secret agent Larkin.”

“What are we going to be doing?”  Neal asked the obvious question.

“Overall, you will be overseeing the protection of all of the Intersect projects.  Because some of them already have problems, like the Ring and Volkoff Industries, you will also be working missions with the intent of taking these organizations down.”  Turning to Chuck, she added.  “Although it isn’t going to be immediate, it is hoped that this will free your mother, agent Frost, in the long run and help to keep Orion safe from the many opponents that are currently pursuing him.”

With her portions of the work completed, Beckman collected her things and left to return to DC.

Remaining in his seat, Hughes made a brief comment.  “Having been in the field as long as I have, I have collected a lot of contacts and heard a lot of stories.  Let’s just say that I hope this doesn’t bring those to life in the office here, but I do look forward to working with Bryce Larkin, Charles Carmichael, Orion, and Frost…”  He smiled knowingly at the younger agents in the room.

Laughing slightly, Neal scratched the side of his head.  “I don’t want all of the betrayal mess to come here either, but I’m glad you know who we are.”

Moving to collect his files, Hughes redirected the conversation to the next step.  “And now it is time to go talk to the team.”  Passing Peter one of the files, he sent him a smile before going to drop his stack into his office.

*******

Following Hughes’ lead, the other agents moved to put their files away before collecting together on the landing to introduce the team to the new arrangement that they could expect.

Starting the story, Chuck introduced himself to the room at large.  “As most of you have heard, my field name if Charles Carmichael, but you can call me Chuck as that is a part of my real name.  Neal and I met in school, but not the level that you have probably concluded.  He was my college roommate.  We studied computer engineering together and he also studied accounting while competing in track.  When senior year came around, he saw that I was in danger, so he got involved and protected me.  Deciding to trust him, my father contacted him and enlisted his help in classified government work which took Neal’s life on a roller coaster.  Although he is also working to protect his own family, he has ensured my family’s protection for years, even to the point of having technically been killed twice.  I can’t go into specifics, but after the last time he was killed, he was taken by the group that Kramer and Keller associate with.  In their hands, he was programmed to forget everything about me, his real past, and he was set loose to be a criminal legend under their control.  Since he himself was only suppressed, that eventually back fired on them.  Now he has been freed and is fully able to remember his past, so don’t be surprised if he starts being his nerdy self again in addition to an element of the familiar Caffrey… he was programmed off of his criminal reputation after all.”  Chuck finished with a teasing smirk that caused Neal to roll his eyes.

Smiling as he took the next part, Peter stepped forwards.  “Neal, put your foot on the railing.”

“What…why?  Neal questioned. 

“Just do it.”  Peter ordered.  “Your other foot.”  He added with a smirk when Neal went to put the wrong one up.

Starting to realize what was happening, Neal’s eyes opened wider as Peter explained to the office.

“As you all now know, Neal has been working with the government for some time now.  Based on that and the other circumstances surrounding recent discoveries, his sentence has been commuted and he is now a free man.”  While proudly pulling the key out of his pocket, Peter proceeded to open the anklet.  “Neal didn’t know this was coming, but he has already stated the plan to stick around so his new contract will be ready to sign on Monday.”  Having said his piece, he put his hand on Neal’s shoulder as a brotherly gesture of support, but also to help the surprised man keep his balance as he put his foot back down.  Once he was standing, Peter pulled Neal into a public hug to celebrate.

Taking his turn, Chuck shook Neal’s hand to congratulate him, and then he pulled him into a hug where he whispered.  “Congratulations, things are finally working out for you.”

Patting Chuck on the back, Neal answered.  “Thanks, but I could say the same for you. After all, you now know where you mother is too.”

As they stepped back from their hug, Peter had one more announcement.  “Anyone who wants to come, there is a celebratory dinner at my place tonight.  El has already got it set up so we had better get going.”

Closing down the office for the evening, the team moved to transfer the celebration from the office to a more comfortable environment.

*******

Arriving at the Burkes first, Peter led Neal and Chuck inside.  “El, we’re here, and most of the team is coming along behind us.”  Peter called as he hung up his jacket.

Coming in with a smile, Elizabeth greeted them happily.  “Congratulations Neal!”  She wrapped him in a hug.

“Thanks El.  I take it Peter messaged you earlier?”  Neal asked.

“Of course, you took down the people that hurt you, cleared your name on the treasure situation, and got the anklet removed… anyone of those are reasons to celebrate.”  She smiled.

“Don’t forget that both of them got promoted to Director and Assistant Director of operations.”  Peter added with a smile as he threw his arms acrossed their shoulders in a friendly fashion.

“You’re an agent?”  Elizabeth was surprised.

Throwing Peter a look for telling Elizabeth, Neal shrugged gently. “Yeah, I was recruited my junior year of college.”

Shaking her head to dispel her reaction to the surprise, she congratulated him again and included Chuck this time.  “Then congratulations to both of you!”  She smiled happily.

“I was promoted for our new taskforce, but these two still out rank me by a long shot.”  Peter ruffled their hair proudly before turning to answer the door.  Letting people in, he greeted the main members of his team, June, and Sara.

Straightening their hair, Neal and Chuck just smiled despite the slight glares they threw Peter’s way.  They enjoyed the friendly interaction, but did he really have to mess with their hair?

Once everyone had entered and had their food, Peter updated June and Sara on Neal’s new status, as far as the public information was concerned.  After he had finished, there was a brief applause as everyone congratulated him again or for the first time.

Bowing in a comedic fashion, Neal started joking.  “Thank you, thank you very much.  It’s nice to finally get my due as the heavy hitter for this partnership.”  He was looking sideways at Peter as he added the last part for his reaction.

Giving him an unexpected reaction, Peter made a quick move to place Neal in a headlock.  He wasn’t going to reveal his fighting skills for the team to see, so Peter had the upper hand for the moment.  “Say uncle if you want me to let you go.”

Putting on a show, Neal pretended to struggle stubbornly while he whispered.  “I am so going to take you down for this the next time we spar.”  He teasingly threatened.

“I’m not worried.  You’ll also show me how to defend myself from whatever move you use, so it’s not something that you can repeat… eventually, I won’t be so easy to take down.”  Peter stated confidently.

Knowing that Peter had him, Neal eventually gave up and said it.  “Alright, I give up.  Uncle.”

“Who is the heavy hitter of our partnership?”  Peter pushed.

Smirking for their audiences benefit, Neal gave him the point.  “You are, oh mighty agent.”  Neal playfully mocked him.

“Caffrey…”  Peter threatened to the audience’s delight.

Once everyone had left and Chuck was heading home, Peter dropped Neal off for the night as the perfect end to an extremely long week.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you everyone for reading, reviewing, leaving kudos, following, and choosing to favorite my stories and I :D

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you everyone for reading, reviewing, leaving kudos, following, and choosing to favorite :D  
> As I mentioned last week, I will post some extra chapters at random points on either Tuesday or Thursday depending on the flow of the story and/or my schedule.


End file.
